


Missed Call

by Felicity_The_Cat



Series: Jagged Grins that hide her Sins [6]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Child Murder, Dayshift at Freddy's Fangame, Drinking, Drug Use, F/M, First Meetings, Friendship, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 30,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24919063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felicity_The_Cat/pseuds/Felicity_The_Cat
Summary: Vanny is eager to get started at yet another Freddy's location. It's always entertaining to tear the place up. The Phone guy at this particular location seems a little nicer than any of the others she had met before. Vanny doesn't mind his company.
Relationships: Jack Kennedy (Dayshift at Freddy's) & Reluctant Follower (Five Nights at Freddy's), Jack Kennedy/Dave Miller (Dayshift at Freddy's), William Afton | Dave Miller & Reluctant Follower
Series: Jagged Grins that hide her Sins [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753153
Comments: 3
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

Location number five… Was this five? Vanny blinked as sunlight poured in from her windshield. This was number five, she concluded with a little huff. She was late to the party, sadly. Jack and Dave had been here for a week already, but just like always, she had managed to track them down. Why did she continually chase after them, anyway? The trio always split up not long after ruining a Freddy’s and taking a trip to Vegas that was almost always regrettable. They would then slip off, find a new Freddy’s, and regroup. Vanny had met Jack at the third Freddy’s she had worked at, and it was hard to believe that she had already gone through so many of the damn restaurants. Between the nagging of their bosses and the threat of dying in the death suits, most people would have never returned to work a second time, but here she was, following her colorful friends across the country to butcher kids and rig pirate fox to explode. Vanny’s smile returned a little, and she relaxed as she continued to drive towards the health hazard that was Freddy’s. 

_ That  _ was why she came back… Dave and Jack. She chased them all across the country, showing up at new locations and bringing terror to every woman, child, and man she crossed paths with. When the building finally came into view, Vanny felt herself relax. This was going to be okay, everything was going to be alright. The woman pulled into the parking lot and sat in her car for a while, staring blankly into those long windows that covered the entire front of the building. There were kids running around, and the sight of them made her just a little more eager to get inside. Jack and Dave were somewhere in there, and she knew that they were most likely already scheming a way to ruin the restaurant and every employee inside. Vanny sucked in a small breath before heading inside, leaving her purse in the passenger seat. The woman pulled the front of her green jacket closed as a cold wind made her shiver. It was almost November, so the colder weather was to be expected, but Vanny hated it. 

_ “Oh god.”  _

Vanny froze at the voice and turned to see Jack behind her, walking up with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. The man pulled the cigarette from his lips and sighed, letting the smoke roll out of his decaying lungs. “How the fuck did you find us this fast?” Jack muttered as he put the cigarette back to his mouth, finally reaching Vanny with a little huff. He was clearly hungover; Vanny could smell the alcohol on him.

“Have you found our houses yet?” Jack questioned with an unamused glance over at the woman. Vanny grinned wide, nodded, then paused. “Er...Dave’s.” She corrected herself.

“Wonderful,” Jack murmured as he let out a deep sigh. He grabbed his cigarette once more and offered it to Vanny with a weary look. Jack looked completely and utterly miserable, but Vanny couldn’t blame him in the slightest. Hangovers were a bitch.

She took the cigarette with an appreciative hum and brought it to her lips, sucking in a deep breath of the poison with gratitude. Jack looked over at the woman, giving a quick glance down at her arm where there was a faint scar forming. Her jacket’s sleeves were rolled up ever so slightly, and the mark barely peeked out at him. The Foxy at the last location was just a bit too twitchy and fast, and he had managed to slash her arm open. Granted, the fox was already possessed by … more of their victims at that point, but Jack felt sympathy for her.

He had never actually seen her injured before, and the sight of tears gathering in her eyes had made him wince. He never thought he’d feel pity for the woman, but here they were, and she was somehow finding a way to make him care for her. She was nothing more than a plaything for Dave, and Jack knew that. If Vanny wasn’t aware of that by now, she was choosing to ignore it. Jack felt sorry for her if he was being honest. While Dave and he had some sort of fucked up relationship, Jack had his doubts that Vanny meant much to Dave. 

The purple man had abandoned her in Vegas four times now, and after this location was ruined, Jack knew it would be five. 

Vanny held out his cigarette, offering it back to him with a grin. Jack took it with a small nod and returned it to his lips as they both paced up to the door.

“What have I missed?” Vanny asked with an excited bounce in her step as they both walked inside for another day of chaos, mechanical monstrosities, and screams from people’s mistakes.   
“Not… not much,” Jack shrugged as he tossed his cigarette onto the black and white checkered tiles, stomping on it as he walked over it. “Dave was messing with the play tubes… I think he wants to trap some kinds inside and-”

“-Drown them in oil?” Vanny cut him off with a wide grin. Jack blinked and stared at her as they continued to walk. Why was he still surprised by the deranged shit that came out of her mouth?

“I… Please don’t suggest that to him,” Jack pleaded with a wince. The mere thought of being surrounded by enough oil to drown in made Jack shudder, and he could practically picture how that felt in his mouth. The man shivered and shoved his hands into his pockets, not missing the way that Vanny smirked just a little more at his plea to never let Dave hear her horrifying addition to his scheme. “So if we aren’t drowning them,” Vanny began before trailing off and falling quiet. She hadn’t actually been properly ‘hired’ yet, but one glance in the direction of this location’s Phoney caused her to stop in her tracks. Jack stopped walking as well and shot her a confused look before eyeing the phone-head across the room who was currently fighting off a swarm of toddlers… and losing, by the looks of it.

“Go talk to him,” Jack muttered as he fished another cigarette from his pocket. The phone-face was too busy to stop him, so he was taking the opportunity to smoke where he pleased. 

“We’ll be in the saferoom,” he assured her. Vanny nodded and turned away from Jack, letting him go to the back to help Dave with whatever unholy scheme was being planned.

Vanny smirked wide as she waited for the grey phone man to fling off the rest of the toddlers from his ankles. As the last of the children scurried away, Vanny cleared her throat, making herself known. The man in front of her tensed and turned to face her, clearly nervous by the awkward tapping of his fingers. “Oh! Uh, hello, hello!” He greeted sheepishly, taking a step back to distance himself from the pink woman who was just a  _ tad _ bit too close.

“Hello!” Vanny beamed back, disturbingly excited for a woman who was signing away her soul to a fast-food pizza joint. The phone man in front of her nervously shifted his weight, taken back by her enthusiasm to be hired here. “I… You’re here for the job-”

Vanny nodded without missing a beat. The phone man cringed, or as much as he could without a face to show emotion. “Wh...Why?” He found himself asking. Usually, the people who walked through that door already looked run down and half dead, having already given up on life. The woman in front of him seemed energetic, enthusiastic, and full of life. Why in the hell would she want to spend her days cooped up in a moldy pizza joint?

Vanny seemed taken back by the question, but simply shrugged as her grin widened.

“I need money,” She hummed. The man in front of her hesitated again.   
“We can only pay you in Faz-”

“Faztokens, yes, I know.” Vanny interrupted. The grey phone-head fell silent once again.

Was… this woman okay?

“Uh… Okay… What’s… What’s your name?” He questioned. The grin that the woman wore was unsettling, and her piercing white pupils and burning red eyes made him uneasy.

“ _ Vanessa _ .” She chirped. The man reluctantly nodded. “Any uh… any medical conditions I need to know about?” Vanny cocked her head sideways curiously, leaned forward on the tips of her toes, and hummed as she replied. “I have enough glitter in my bloodstream to fill several jars,”

That one… was new. The phone guy paused, unsure of how to respond to that.

“Oh.. O-Okay… Have you… worked at one of these joints before-”

“A few, yes.” She proudly proclaimed. 

So… not only had this woman worked at a Freddy’s before, but she kept coming back. She didn’t even seem like she wanted to escape. He didn’t know if this woman was mentally sound, but she seemed ...qualified enough.

“Do… you want a tour?” He asked with an awkward twiddle of his fingers. Vanny’s smile never faltered, but she eyed him curiously, taking in every detail of him. He was nothing special; just your average, run of the mill Phoney. A blue jacket clung to his thin body, and his head seemed rather shiny and new. Vanny could practically still smell the blood on him from his accident. Well… Freddy’s smelled like blood, anyways. It was hard to completely escape the smell.

“I think I can find my way around just fine, Scottie.” She hummed with a devious little wiggle of her fingers. The man nodded and watched as she walked off towards the safe room.

She was… weird, to put it lightly. But somehow, in a restaurant full of robots, phone-people and strangely hued creeps, she fit right in.


	2. Chapter 2

This was only the second day that she had been here, and Scott was already coming to regret hiring her. She and the other two newest employees had been crawling in and out of the play tubes throughout their shifts, dragging tools inside despite his pleas for them to just do what he was paying them for. Vanessa seemed to know the orange and purple monsters he’d made the mistake of hiring, and he had quickly realized that they were all going to be doing very little work. The purple one- Dave- seemed to be the leader, and Vanessa was his eager little helper. Jack, the more sensible of the three, seemed a little more hesitant to clamber inside of the vomit-smelling plastic tubes to help with… whatever it was they were doing.

He seemed to be doing the most work while Dave and Vanessa continued to defile the dank tubes that hadn’t been cleaned in years. Scott cast a glance over at the filthy bear suit that Jack was currently wearing as he handed out cake to a sea of ungrateful toddlers.

Scott shuddered as he watched them grab ahold of the bear suit’s already-grimey fur with their filthy, spit covered hands. Even though Jack’s face couldn’t be seen behind the suit’s rows of teeth, Scott could picture the misery plastered to it. Jack’s co-workers didn’t seem too concerned with helping him out; the rabbit suit had sat in the back, practically unused since Vanessa showed up. She seemed friendly enough but wasn’t contributing much to keep this sinking ship known as Freddy’s afloat. 

“Employees,” The phone-head huffed as both Dave and Vanny were crawling back out of the tubes. Both looked unconcerned and unphased by his disappointed, scolding tone. 

“Sup, Phoney?” The pink woman hummed as she stood up, brushing the crumbs off of her that had been inside of the play tube. When was the last time that thing was cleaned? Rotting food could be found around every corner in there, and the entire thing stunk of piss and vomit.

How they both managed to stay in there for so long, Scott wasn’t sure, but they now reeked of the tubes. He took a couple of cautionary steps back, and Vanny cocked her head to the side in a creepy, curious way. “You two fucking reek,” The man complained as he stared at his rather disappointing employees. Vanny’s grin stretched impossibly wider, and she let out a small hum.

“Maybe if the janitor actually cleaned the tubes, we wouldn’t,” The woman pointed out. 

Scott lifted his hand up, about to speak, but paused. They had a point, but he wasn’t going to acknowledge that. “You shouldn’t be in there, anyway!” He exclaimed with a confused shake of his head. “What are you even doing?” He demanded as one of his hands came up to hold his head. 

“Fixing the tubes.” Dave lied with a pleasant smile. Scott paused and stared at the man for a moment, hesitant to believe him, but not knowing that everything Dave said to him since being hired hadn’t been the full truth. 

“R...Really?” Scott stuttered nervously, tapping his fingers together in a timid manner.

Dave grinned, nodded and tilted his head up proudly. “Of course! We can’t have any kiddies knockin’ the bolts loose! Right, Van-Van?” 

Scott turned to look at Vanessa, searching her face for any sign of this being a trick. Her smile was wide as ever, though, and she merely nodded in agreement with Dave.

“We have to keep the kids safe, right, Phoney?” 

Vanessa’s question made the phone-head tense, and he quickly nodded defensively.

“I- uh- yes! O-Of course… We have to… uh… keep the kids… safe.”

Nothing else was said before the purple man grabbed ahold of her wrist and rushed off through the diner, dragging her behind him as they made their way around customers and their kids. Scott watched in silence as they vanished down the hall, heading towards the safe room. He wasn’t sure how he really felt about them, but one glance back up at the play tubes made him a little anxious. What were they actually doing in there? Even if he wanted to go in and check, the size of his phone-head alone prevented it, not to mention the horrid smells that wafted out of the colorful plastic at all hours of the day. Whatever it was, he couldn’t trouble himself with it anymore. He had things to attend to, and a business to run.


	3. Chapter 3

In the seclusion of the safe room, Vanny watched in uncomfortable silence as Jack clambered out of his bear suit, and Dave crawled into his. The sounds of the spring locks clicking made her tense, and she found herself avoiding watching them as they set the locks into place. One slip up and she knew that they’d be impaled, dying a horrid, slow death inside of the death traps. She really didn’t want to see that happen. Vanny didn’t want to lose either of them.

In her hands, she held her own mask. White and brown fur wrapped around the sea of bright red eyes that were the last thing that several children ever saw. Her suit was just that; a suit. It wasn’t filled with metal that could pierce her flesh, and it wasn’t mechanical in the slightest. She had made this suit in the comfort of her own home from safe materials; it was just a costume with no metal to be found inside. She feared those damn spring lock suits, and she hated watching Jack and Dave crawl in and out of them. She had never been inside of one, and she didn’t ever plan to change that. She had made this rabbit suit to avoid ever being forced inside of a death suit, and her Phone-headed bosses either didn’t care that she wasn’t dressed as an actual mascot, or didn’t realize that the white and brown rabbit wasn’t one of their characters.

_ “It’s a new rabbit,” _ Vanny would lie.  _ “Just another Bonnie redesign.”  _

Her bosses rarely had the time or energy to put up much of a fight, so she continued to take the suit with her to every location she found herself at. The body of the suit was already slipped on, and she sat on top of an old cardboard box in the corner of the room in silence. She stared into her mask’s eyes; deep into that red that was so much brighter than her real eyes. The doe in her hands wore a tight grin, and even though it wasn’t nearly as unsettling as her own, it still petrified plenty of toddlers. Jack was muttering something that she didn’t quite catch, but the smell of smoke caught her attention and she perked up. Jack was leaning against the wall, cigarette in hand as he watched Dave suit up. 

“And we’re doing  _ what _ with the tubes?” Jack questioned in an unamused tone. He shot a sideways glance over at Vanny, hoping that she hadn’t brought up the oil plan.

“It’s going to be like a glue trap,” Dave began from inside of his rabbit suit. “Kids are gonna go in and get stuck, and when their parents crawl in to get ‘em-”

“ _ Christ _ .” Jack found himself muttering, shaking his head before putting his cigarette back to his lips. Vanny stood up and slid her mask on, hiding her excited smirk behind the artificial smile of her mask. “I think it’ll be funny,” She stated in defense of Dave, to which Jack merely shook his head. She didn’t have time to try and defend the plan any further, she and Dave had to keep up the appearance of getting  _ some  _ actual work done. Vanny stood up on the tips of her big, ridiculous mascot toes, spun across the dirty floor, and found herself at the saferoom door.

“C’mon Davey. We’ve got some cake to serve,” She practically purred.

Jack watched as both of them slipped out the door, and he tossed his cigarette to the floor, stomping it and leaving it for whoever occasionally cleaned the place to deal with.


	4. Chapter 4

Day four. This was the fourth day after hiring Vanessa, and Scott found himself … still regretting it, if he were being honest. She had stopped frequently crawling in and out of the play tubes, at least, but there was something about her and the others that he still found unsettling. Vanny always had a hint of something ...wild in her eyes. It was a little unnerving, but she seemed to be doing a passable amount of work, so there wasn’t much to actually hold against her. Her smile made him uncomfortable, and the way she scanned everyone she met with her eyes made him feel as if she were a predator checking out its prey. Vanessa was an odd woman, but most people who worked at Freddy’s weren’t normal after leaving. He briefly wondered if she was always pink, or if some horrible freak accident at one of the other locations she had worked at had caused it. He’d never heard of someone turning pink from working here, but at this point, not much surprised him. He hadn’t put up a fight about her homemade costume. The kids didn’t seem to care that she wasn’t an official character, and neither did he. She was still helping with the birthday parties, and that was all he could ask of her. Those suits in the back were… unpleasant. It really wasn’t that long ago that he had been crawling in and out of them, only the last time he had  _ crawled  _ in, he had to be  _ pulled  _ out. Scott had no intention of forcing Vanessa into one of those suits. 

Just because he wasn’t going to make her crawl into a death trap and die didn’t mean that he liked the way she creepily stared at him, though. Her mere presence made him uncomfortable, despite the fact that she had never actually done anything intentionally mean to him. Dave and Jack were beginning to jab at him, throwing insults his way and showing a complete disregard for his authority, but Vanny always seemed more preoccupied with other things. Tormenting him wasn’t her number one priority, at least. Scott really couldn’t say if she was against it or not- she just seemed to have better things to pay attention to. She always seemed busy, and even though she would cast jagged grins in the direction of Dave and Jack as they tormented him, she never seemed intent on helping out. Vanessa seemed eager to get back to… whatever it was that they were actually doing up in those tubes. 

* * *

The day went by rather slow, but when six o’clock finally rolled around, Scott was more than happy to have his day shift employees out of his metaphorical hair for the night. After their departure, the rest of the evening went by without incident. The kids eventually flooded out the doors, clinging to their worn-down parents with their little grubby hands. As the last of them filed out, the phone man found himself relaxing. Now it was just him and the foul smells that emitted from the robots in that lonely building.

The night shift wouldn’t be arriving until later, and he still had some things to sort out before heading home for the night. Getting out of here before midnight was a good idea. He wasn’t being paid to watch the robots; he hired  _ other  _ people to die at the mascot’s mechanical hands. The pizzeria was quiet, but something seemed… off.

The lifeless gaze from the robots wasn’t what was creeping the man out, but he couldn’t figure out exactly what  _ was _ making him uneasy. Everything appeared to be as it should, and that was somehow even more unsettling. What was-

Scott stiffened as a noise echoed down the hall, coming right from his office. One glance over at the stage told him that the source of the noise wasn’t any of the animatronics. He knew for a fact that Foxy was still in the cove, which meant whatever, or whoever was in his office, was something else. Whatever was in there, he had to face it. It was his responsibility to keep this place from burning down, and whatever was here was in  _ his _ office. He needed to get it out. 

Scott slowly paced down the hall towards his office as silently as he could manage. He held his hands together nervously as he neared the shut door, trying to remain brave as the sounds from inside grew louder. It didn’t sound mechanical, but that somehow frightened him even more. Nobody was supposed to be here right now, and especially not in his office. The man reached the door and slowly pushed it open, coming face to face with a familiar shade of pink.

“ _ Vanessa _ ,” He sighed out in relief, placing a hand over his chest as his anxiety began to melt away. Vanny looked up at him curiously, a little surprised to see him, but not looking too terribly concerned that she had been caught snooping around his office. She was rummaging through a small box of miscellaneous objects, searching for something that she was apparently failing to find. 

“Scott,” She hummed with a small smile before turning back to the box, scouring through scraps of robotic parts, chips, bolts.... Scott stared at her for a long moment, just watching as she pilfered through the useless box of garbage.

“You don’t have to… call me that.” He muttered sheepishly as he stepped inside the office, letting the door fall shut behind him. The man made his way over to his swivel chair and sat down with a small huff, not bothering to question her. She could take what she wanted from the trash box; he didn’t really care. The woman’s search came to a halt, and she looked up at him curiously from where she was, sitting on her knees on the checkered floor.

“We’re off the clock. No need for formalities.” He added as he began looking over a stack of documents sitting on his desk. Vanny was quiet for a moment until she spoke.

“What should I call you, then?” She asked in a soft voice. Her smile was gone, and a look of curiosity was plastered to her face. The phone-head turned to her briefly, then returned his attention back to his remaining work.

“Thomas.” 

Vanny was silent for a moment before turning back to the box. She was well aware that Scott wasn’t any phone man’s real name, but she had never learned any of her previous employer’s real names before. Thomas was a lot more… lenient with her and the others than any other boss she had before. He was decent to her, and here, in the quiet of the office, Vanny didn’t find herself wanting to torment him like she had with her previous bosses. She had no motive for tearing him down, and she had no interest in finding one.

“That’s a nice name.” She hummed as she continued to pilfer through the box.

“T...Thank you?” Thomas stuttered from where he sat, glancing over at Vanessa in slight confusion. “You don’t have to call me Vanessa,” She informed him, not bothering to turn and make eye contact. The office was quiet for a moment; the only sound was the metal being stirred around in the box. Thomas eventually spoke, though.

“What should I call you then?” Came his simple question. Vanny slowly stood and slid something from the box into her jacket’s pocket before turning to face him.

“Whatever you want.” She chirped with a soft smile. Thomas stared at her for a moment and eventually nodded. He didn’t care what she had taken, and he didn’t bother to ask as she turned and began heading towards the door. “Have a good night, Ness.” He called out. Vanny turned to him and grinned, giving him a friendly nod.

“You too, Phoney,” 


	5. Chapter 5

Vanny sat in silence, watching as Jack pulled Dave just a little closer. His arms were wrapped around Dave’s long neck, and both of them were grinning like idiots. The arcade was mostly empty; it had been a rather slow day today, meaning that there weren’t as many brats crawling around, and the arcade was currently void of children. There was only one birthday party taking place at the moment, and Vanny was already suited up, minus her head, which she loosely held in her hands. She watched Dave and Jack hold and nuzzle each other with a blank expression, watching as purple fingers ran through Jack’s hair, and orange slid through Dave’s. They were being far too touchy for being at work, but Thomas was elsewhere at the moment, so they were free to their own devices. If they wanted to get high, there was nobody to scold them for it. If they wanted to nuzzle and kiss on the arcade machine… Well, they were already doing that. Vanny stood, leaning against a broken Breadbear machine that most likely wouldn’t see a day it was running ever again. Jack cast a nervous glance over to Vanny momentarily, catching her gaze as white pupils stared into white pupils. She blinked slowly before pushing herself away from the machine with a small huff. “I’m gonna go deal with the party before Phoney comes nosing around back here.” She muttered before sliding her mask on. Dave pulled his attention away from Jack, but his arms remained tangled around him.

“You sure, Van-Van? I don’t think Phoney’d notice if ya skipped one lousy party.”

Vanny’s expression was hidden under her mask, but she gave a small nod.

“Can’t have the kid miss out on ‘unnamed rabbit mascot’ showing up to their birthday, can we?” She hummed. Jack flashed her an amused grin, and she found herself smiling back ever so slightly, even though he couldn’t see it. 

“We can’t have them miss out on that experience,” Jack agreed with a small, playful smirk. Dave looked between Vanny and Jack before simply shrugging his shoulders. If Vanny wanted to go entertain the little snot goblins, he wasn’t going to argue against it. Someone had to do some actual work around here, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be him. 

“Suit yourself, Van.” The purple man muttered before returning his full attention to Sportsy. Vanny watched them for another moment before turning away and pacing out of the arcade, leaving them to do whatever they wanted. A brief appearance at the party to hand out cake would be enough to satisfy Thomas, Vanny rationalized to herself as she headed towards the kitchen where the cake was being stored. That was, of course, if the rats hadn’t gotten to it already. It wouldn’t have been the first time that she had found the little bastards in a cake, but how they managed to get into the fridge was beyond her. It was Freddy’s; what did make sense here? Her employer was practically a zombie with a phone for a head, for god’s sake. Speaking of the phone, Vanny realized that she hadn’t actually seen him around today. It was odd, but she hadn’t given it much thought until now. Vanny pulled open the fridge and pushed away her thoughts as she came face to face with the cake. A name was crudely written on the top of the vanilla frosting with black icing, and the entire thing looked untouched. The rats hadn’t gotten their little fingers on it, after all. Vanny paused, simply staring at the cake.

Did rats have fingers? Her eyes drifted down to her own hands, and she clenched and unclenched them a few times. Rats had pink little paws,  _ or hands _ , Vanny wasn’t really sure. 

_...She had rat hands. _

“Ness?” Vanny tensed and turned quickly, coming face to face with the devil himself. Thomas stood right behind her, and even though he had no face, Vanny could tell he was curious as to what she was up to. “...Scott.” She murmured before turning back to the fridge to fetch the cake. Vanny picked it up carefully, then stepped away from the fridge before closing the door with her foot. Thomas looked her over, eyeing her suit from head to toe. One thing had managed to catch his attention; she wasn’t wearing gloves. The white fur of her suit stopped at her wrists, exposing her pink hands for everyone to see. Thomas stared for a moment, then slowly looked up into those burning red eyes that weren’t hers. Somehow, with her disturbing smile covered by the rabbit face, it made her just a little creepier.

“Your… Your hands?” Thomas stuttered out, clearly unable to form coherent sentences at the moment. Vanny waited for him to continue, but when he didn’t, she gave a nod.

“Yeah. What about ‘em?” She questioned. Thomas looked back down at her hands, then back up into the mask’s eyes. “Where are… they?”

Vanny was quiet for a moment, simply tapping her fingers on the bottom of the plate she was holding. “Dirty.” Was the only explanation she offered. Thomas wasn’t sure he wanted to know  _ what _ had made them dirty, but he didn’t truly have the time or energy to question her any further. There was only one party planned for today, and he had his doubts that any of the brats would care that the off-brand rabbit lacked fuzzy hands. Even if they did, Thomas couldn’t bring himself to truly care. He had bigger concerns than kids laying awake at night, wondering why the strange, pointy-toothed rabbit from Freddy’s had furless, pink hands. 

Vanny wasn’t going to go into detail about how  _ glue  _ had gotten on the paws, and how she hadn’t realized until they were glued together… with her stuck inside. Dave had to cut the suit at the wrists; freeing her, but leaving her pawless. She hadn’t been able to successfully get all of the glue off of them and re-attach them yet, so she was stuck exposing her filthy, child strangling rat hands. That was the price for making the play tubes a glue trap, she supposed. Her precious little bunny paws were the price for her sins. It didn’t’ seem very fair to her if she were being honest. 

Thomas gave a small nod, not caring enough to press her. The man began to speak, clearly nervous, but for once it wasn’t because of her presence. He definitely seemed a lot more relaxed in front of her, despite the sharp teeth grinning at him from her mask.

“There’s... There’s only one birthday party today, so... uh...”

Vanny nodded. “I know.” She informed him. Thomas tried his best to hold his head up and straighten his back, trying to hide the fact that something was clearly bothering him.

“Good, alright. Okay… I… Have you seen Jack and Dave?” 

Vanny stood motionless for a moment. Her expression was hidden behind the mask, but she simply shrugged. “They may be in the safe room.” She offered, knowing full well that they were probably still in the arcade. She wasn’t going to give them up, even if Thomas was a lot more pleasant than her previous bosses. The phone head perked up a little and nodded, muttering a small, barely audible “Thank you,” before stepping to the side, giving her room to slip out of the kitchen and towards the party room where loud screams were coming from, echoing down the halls. Vanny gripped the plate a little tighter. If she had rat poison. Oh. If she had rat poison.

* * *

Thomas found himself alone in the pizzeria that night, left with paperwork to do, and barely any energy to do it. The robots were all in their places, and he felt like something was off, yet again. The restaurant was silent, but he knew that he wasn’t alone. As the man walked down the hall to his office, the feeling that he wasn’t alone only grew, and a soft, barely audible noise from his office confirmed his suspicions. Thomas didn’t hesitate at the door this time; he had a good feeling that he knew what he’d be faced with inside. Just as he suspected, there she sat.

Vanny looked up at him with a soft grin from his swivel chair, holding a cup in her hands. On the side of the cup was a smiling cartoon bear, winking with a huge smile. She had clearly stolen a fountain drink, but Thomas didn’t care enough to tell her off for it. If she wanted to drink flat rootbeer, so be it. Her petty theft affected him in no way whatsoever.

“What… are you doing in here?” Thomas asked, curious but not truly bothered by her presence. Staying after hours was always a little lonely, and if she wanted to stay in his office, he wasn’t going to complain. Vanny hesitated to answer but eventually settled on a simple shrug before putting the straw of her stolen drink into her mouth, sucking down flat soda without a second thought. Thomas sighed and stepped inside the office, letting the door fall shut behind him.

“Please get out of my seat.” 

Vanny stood without hesitation, took a step away from the chair, and then climbed up onto the desk to sit. She crossed her legs and took another sip from her cup, watching Thomas in complete silence. The man was too tired to scold her for sitting on the desk. She wasn’t hurting anything, so why bother? He sat down in his chair, distantly realizing how warm it was. How long had she been sitting in here? Thomas looked up at her curiously.

“Why… why are you still here?” He finally asked. Vanny’s lips were still wrapped around the red plastic straw in her cup, sucking the foul liquid down without pausing for even a moment. She shrugged again, and Thomas decided that he was satisfied with that answer.

“Alright…” He huffed before reaching out and grabbing a small stack of paperwork from his desk. Vanny wasn’t saying anything, but he somehow felt more relaxed with her around, which was odd in itself. Maybe it was just having someone else in the building with him that soothed his nerves. Spending hours alone with no company other than the robots wasn’t ideal, as much as he liked having quiet moments with… certain mascots. 

Thomas looked over what he was dealing with. Customer complaints, threats of lawsuits… Everything a phone-man was  _ made _ to deal with, yet Thomas hated each and every second of it. If he could drop all of this and leave Freddy’s behind, he would in a heartbeat. He was stuck here, though, and if he ever tried to leave, he knew that someone would be sent to retrieve him. Whether he’d be taken back alive or not, he didn’t want to know. He wasn’t who he used to be; he was property, now. Thomas was just another monster made by Freddy’s, and nothing could change that. Vanny sat her nearly-empty cup aside and sighed, eyeing the man as he shuffled through the stack of papers. They weren’t interesting whatsoever, but the folders he kept them in had… stickers on them. A few sparkly ones caught her eye, and she leaned a little closer, putting her hands on the desk to keep herself up. The stickers weren’t anything special; some were shaped like food, some were plants … Vanny eyed a few Foxy stickers on the folders and immediately recognized them from the prize counter.

“You collect stickers?” She asked with a curious little smile, captivated by the way some of them glistened. Thomas pulled himself from his work and stared at her for a moment.

“Collect… isn’t the word I would use. But… I like them, yes.” 

Vanny grinned and looked back to the folders, then to a half-used sheet of stickers that glistened and shone under the office lights. “Can I have one?” She asked bluntly. Thomas was quiet for a moment and followed her gaze to the sticker sheet. “Yeah,” he finally managed as he reached for the sheet. Vanny eagerly took it into her hands as soon as he offered it out to her, and her eyes widened in excitement. “You can take a couple,” Thomas informed her before returning his attention to the papers he had been sorting through moments before. 

Vanny didn’t take long to select a sticker from the sheet; a small bluejay that sparkled. Vanny carefully ripped the sticker from the sheet; tearing the paper around it with care as to not tear the sticker itself. Thomas glanced over, curious which one she had picked. He was quiet for a moment but did eventually speak. 

“Why that one?” he found himself asking. Vanny simply grinned and shrugged. 

“I like that one… It sparkles.” She admired it for a moment more before slipping it into her jacket’s pocket and turning back to the sheet. Thomas watched as her eyes scanned over the remaining stickers. She looked like she was really invested in selecting her next one; far too invested for cheap stickers, honestly. Vanny selected another sticker and peeled it from the paper this time, sticking it to her finger. Thomas eyed the little star sticker with interest as she examined it. It, too, sparkled, just like the Bluejay she had picked out. Vanny moved her finger around, watching the way it glimmered on the tip of her finger for a moment before leaning forward on the desk again. Thomas stiffened as she reached out for him and grabbed at his head.

“ _ Vanes- _ ” He wasn’t able to finish before the sticker was stuck to the plastic of his phone head.

Vanny leaned back with a satisfied little smirk, eyeing the sticker and how it shone. 

Thomas seemingly didn’t know how to react at first. He just kind of… sat there.

His hand eventually came up to feel the sticker, brushing over its glossy surface silently.

Vanny picked her drink back up and smiled before sliding the gnawed straw back into her mouth. Thomas stared at her for what seemed like forever, just taking in…  _ her _ .

Her horrid eyes that pierced his soul stared him down. The pink skin that made her stand out in the sea of customers during her working hours. Her hair was several different shades of purple, sporting a singular orange streak in the long mess of dye and split ends.

She stuck out like a sore thumb, but then again, so did he. They both ended up at Freddy’s, some way or another, and here they remained. Vanny didn’t seem to be put off by his ‘condition’. She had worked for phone heads before, and Thomas briefly wondered exactly  _ how many _ other locations she had been at. That wasn’t a question he was going to ask, though. Not now, anyway. The uncomfortable tension he usually felt while being around her was nowhere to be found, replaced instead with an odd fondness that he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Thomas hadn’t had someone close to him for a few years, now. His employees were just that; employees. They were under him, and even though he wasn’t as harsh as some managers, he was still above them. He was the person that everyone dreaded seeing; he was the bastard that people complained about on their smoke breaks, just out of earshot. For some reason, though, Ness wasn’t treating him like a boss. She wasn’t tormenting him like her co-workers were, and even though she wasn’t going out of her way to be nice to him, she wasn’t being an asshole.

This was the second night that she had stayed after hours, but this time, she didn’t seem to have an excuse to be here. Unless she was planning something, which he doubted, she had stayed back to see him after everyone else was gone. Thomas couldn’t figure out exactly why, but he realized that he was beginning to think of her as more than an employee. Vanny was giving him smiles that people didn’t usually give their bosses. 

_ She was trying to befriend him, in her own weird little way. _

Thomas felt as if he were smiling, despite not actually having the ability to do so anymore.

He turned away from her and to the papers once again, feeling just a little more motivated to get them done than before. 


	6. Chapter 6

“And that’s when we set the fire,” Dave finished with a proud smirk. Jack and Vanny stared at him in silence, clearly unable to figure out how to even respond to that. The silence was awkward, and Jack found it a little surprising that Vanny hadn’t cheerfully spoken up, agreeing with Dave that his plan to ‘set fire to the kids stuck in the tubes’ was amazing, flawless, and  _ fun _ . Dave’s grin faltered ever so slightly, and he looked between the two sitting in front of him with a seeking expression. “What?” He asked, more than a little surprised that even Vanny was quiet. The woman was sitting on a box in the corner of the safe room, right next to Jack. She was quiet for a moment longer, allowing Jack the opportunity to speak up, but when it became apparent that he didn’t plan to, she filled the silence.

“Why the fire?” Vanny asked in a curious tone. Dave simply stared at her.

“You… You love settin’ fires, Van-Van. Why  _ no _ fire?”

Vanny blinked and glanced at Jack, who still hadn’t spoken a word.

“I just… we just got here. Why burn the place down this quick?” She tried to reason, shaking her head as she spoke. Dave blinked and stared down at her, surprised by her lack of enthusiasm to put this Freddy’s to rest and go to Vegas.

“We’re going through locations too quick,” She continued. “We’ll run out of them. And… and then where will we meet up? You know?” 

Dave hesitated but nodded nonetheless. He could see her point, but at the same time, something seemed a little off about it all. It was completely unlike her to shy away from arson and chaos; rational thinking and reasoning came later, if at all.

“We can drown them-” She began, a flicker of excitement in her eyes as she spoke. 

Jack cringed and turned away from her, standing to his feet with a small sigh.

“Drown them? In what?” Dave questioned, hesitant but intrigued.

Before Vanny could reply, Jack butted in. “We’re not going to run out of locations, Van. We can set this one on fire and be in Vegas by Saturday night.”

Vanny’s smile faltered, and she gripped her pants a little. Dave nodded in agreement and took a step closer to the woman as he began moving his hands around like he always did when talking about his schemes.

“It’ll be fun, Van-Van! It’ll be fun, just like always!” He beamed. Vanny sucked in a small breath and held her smile, even if it wasn’t as genuine anymore.

“It’ll be fun.” She repeated in a quiet voice.  _ It will be fun. _

* * *

Vanny watched in silence from across the dining area as Jack and Dave were grabbed by overly excited toddlers. Their suits hid their disgusted looks, but Vanny  _ knew  _ that they were cringing under stained, golden fur. Today was the day that they would lure a few kids away, and tomorrow, they’d set fire to the tubes before making their grand departure off to Vegas. Vanny wasn’t excited like she should have been, though. Leaving Freddy’s behind in a blaze of glory was usually exciting, only this time around, she wasn’t content with leaving just yet. She’d only been here a week and a half, and she felt compelled to linger around and scope everything out just a little more thoroughly. This Freddy’s was nothing special, though. Nothing about it made it unique; the floors were the standard checkered tiles that could be found at any Freddy’s. The animatronics smelled just as bad as they would at any other location. The ceilings had just as many water stains if not more. Mold grew from almost every wall, still rearing its ugly face despite the attempts of covering it up with the crude drawings of children. Nothing was special about this Freddy’s, but setting it alight so soon wasn’t sitting well with her. There was still so much they could do; so much potential havoc they were going to throw away for a fiery rush. Vanny adored setting fires more than the others, but she simply didn’t want to see this place burn. Not this soon; not like this. Vanny continued to stand near the colorful play tubes, watching Dave and Jack pass out cake to the little demons that they were about to end. Vanny had been told to lure a kid or two to the back, and that was exactly what she intended on doing. She was more than a little excited if she were being honest. There was an unexplainable rush that came with killing, and Vanny could barely contain her excitement when Dave gave her the go-ahead to round up a few kids. He was always so very proud of her, and the smile he gave her after they were done always made her melt. Making him proud made her happy, and she wanted to do everything in her power to gain his approval. Burning buildings, strangling toddlers… Going to Vegas, over and over again, despite the fact that she knew she’d wake up, alone and cold somewhere with a horrible headache. Vegas was always  _ fun _ , though.  _ Fun _ until the attention shifted away from her completely, or she found herself on a bad trip. It was always fun until it wasn’t, and Vanny held the fun parts dear to her. 

Jack and Dave began heading to the back with four children at their legs. The kids were screaming and bouncing happily as they followed the duo to the backroom for a ‘ _ special surprise _ ’. She needed to find a child quickly. Dave and Jack wouldn’t want to wait for her for very long. Her suit was already on, _ paws and all. _ She was ready to go, and as she began walking towards the safe room, a lone child caught her eye. 

The small girl looked up at the fluffy white and brown rabbit in awe. Her big blue eyes were blown wide, clearly excited that the doe was approaching her. Vanny was grinning under that rabbit mask; that god damn mask that would be the last thing this girl ever saw.

Vanny sucked in a small breath, bent down, and stared into the child’s eyes.

“ _ Hello _ .” She greeted in a pleasant, chipper tone. The girl smiled wide and brought her hands up to hide her face. “Oh, there’s no need to be shy…” Vanny practically purred.

“What’s your name?” Came Vanny’s soft,  _ friendly question. _

The child muttered something, and Vanny cocked her head to the side curiously.

“What was that?” She asked. The little girl giggled and shook her head. 

“Missy,” the small redhead laughed. Vanny felt a jolt of excitement course through her as the child laughed. “What a… wonderful name… Tell me, Missy… do you like cake?”

The girl nodded without hesitation, and Vanny slowly stood.

“Me and my friends are having a  _ very special party _ in a secret party room… Have you seen the secret party room, Missy?” Another small giggle left the child, and she shook her head ‘no’.

“Oh, it’s wonderful,” Vanny beamed, holding out her paw to the child. The little girl took it without hesitation, and Vanny began making her way to the back room. There was too much going on- so much noise- The cameras were down, Vanny knew. Jack had been kind enough to disable them this morning… Disable them into several little shards. 

There would be nobody to see her. Nobody could stop her.  _ Dave was going to be so proud. _

Every step Vanny took, the world around her began to mean less and less.

The sounds of Freddy’s became nothing more than meaningless noise; the laughter of children faded, and Vanny’s focus shifted solely to the child she was dragging behind her.

“What color is the party room?” she heard Missy ask in a soft, curious voice.

“Red.” Vanny replied without missing a beat. She was smiling, and she continued to pull the girl along. “Beautiful, crimson red.”


	7. Chapter 7

Vanny stared down at the floor where Missy lay;  _ where they all did. _ Jack and Dave were definitely a lot… cleaner about their ‘work’. Her axe was still in her hand, still dripping fresh blood into the growing puddles at her feet. The room reeked of blood and meat; of bile and  _ fear _ .

Jack was already moving to grab something to clean off his knife with, but the room was otherwise still, just as dead as the kids on the floor. Jack looked over to Vanny with a semi-disgusted look.

She was the messiest of the trio. While Jack and Dave used knives or their bare hands, she was insistent on using her axe. It didn’t make for the easiest cleanup, and Jack always felt slightly intimidated when she began hacking up the kids with it. He couldn’t see her grin under her now-bloody mask, but he knew it was there. She was practically motionless, staring down at the girl that she had drug in herself. The child had nearly been hacked in half; the only thing that was holding her together was a small portion of flesh. Vanny had broken her spine, having chopped right through it with a few well-placed swings. Vanny… scared Jack, sometimes. She hadn’t stopped swinging at that girl until Dave had placed a hand on her shoulder, and at that point, one of the kid’s arms had been severed off. Vanny was still staring down at the girl, panting in an attempt to catch her breath.

Dave’s arms wrapped around her midsection and pulled her close against his chest. His suit had already been slipped off and was sitting in the corner; soaked with blood that would forever stain that golden rabbit. Jack’s suit sat right next to it; limp and lifeless. The suits were silent and motionless, just like the five children in varying states of dismemberment.

Dave was muttering something to Vanny that Jack couldn’t make out and probably didn’t want to. He felt a sudden urge to go and wash the blood from his hands. Disposing of the bodies was his least favorite part of this, but there was always clean up after the  _ fun _ .

Vanny  _ finally _ turned away from the corpse of the girl to stare at Jack as he began heading toward the door. Her mask was splattered in blood, and even through it, Jack could feel her eyes piercing his very being. It sent a shiver down his spine, but he found himself giving her a small smile. Dave’s gaze drifted over to him as well, and Jack stopped dead in his tracks.

“Aren’t ya gonna help us tidy up, Sportsy?” Dave asked with an amused grin.

Jack glanced between Dave and Vanny, then down to the bodies. 

Their eyes were wide open, and their faces were permanently fixed into a look of pure terror.

They hadn’t had a chance to live, but Jack had felt  _ alive _ ripping their life away. He didn’t bother to look up at Dave, instead just staring at the remains of the girl that Vanny had gotten ahold of as he nodded. 

* * *

William gripped onto the blood-stained suit in one hand and held Vanny close with the other. She was out of her suit, and they had cleaned up  _ most  _ of their mess. William had been kind enough to offer his help in cleaning her bloody fur while she finished up around here. He didn’t mind doing this for her.  _ He loved to see that demented little smile of hers. _

“Don’t be long…” Dave whispered in a soft voice. Vanny nodded and pressed herself closer against his chest, gazing into those burning white irises she had grown oh so familiar with.

“I’ll be at Sportsy’s…” He whispered before leaning down and giving a quick kiss to her cheek. Vanny’s grin widened as she let out a low rumble in her chest, purring ever so slightly.

“Alright.” She beamed. Dave took a step back, clutching her suit firmly in his hands.

Vanny watched him leave through the window before walking back to the safe room to finish cleaning up. Jack passed her on her way back to the safe room, only giving her a half-smile as he followed Dave, slipping out the window without a word. Vanny hesitated at the door, watching as his long, orange legs slipped out of view and out the window.

She wanted to follow, but she had things to take care of here. There was a room to finish ridding of evidence, and-

“ _ Ness _ !”

Vanny tensed and turned to see Thomas, rushing towards her at an alarmingly fast pace.

Her immediate reaction was to stand up straight, letting him know that she wasn’t intimidated by him in the slightest. This was Thomas, though. Nothing about him felt threatening to her. Before she could reply, the phone-man was grabbing at her arms, clearly in a panic.

“Ness, I-I-” The grey phone shook his head and removed his hands from her arms, practically trembling as he shifted his weight several times; unable to stand still for even a moment.   
“I.. Some kids-”

That was all Vanny needed to hear. She knew why he was panicked, now. Even though she had been through the motions several times before, Vanny felt a slight pang of anxiety welling up in her. The cameras were down, though, and there was no evidence against her. She was safe. Dave and Jack were safe. Thomas was slurring his words; words that Vanny had heard from previous bosses as they too panicked and broke down. 

_ “There are some missing kids, we’re under investigation. Oh god, I don’t want to go to the factory-”  _ were all familiar things to hear, but Thomas looked far more upset than any other Phoney she had watched freak out. Thomas looked panicked, and Vanny couldn’t say she blamed him one bit. If this location got shut down, and it most certainly would after they set it on fire, he would be…  _ The factory. _

Vanny stared at Thomas, and even though she didn’t say a word, her eyes were wide. 

If he could, Vanny knew that he would be crying, or on the verge of doing so.

“What if they…” Thomas fell silent, clearly in distress as he shook his head frantically.

“God… What if they were hurt? Christ… Ness, I- I can’t…”

The man before her trembled, and Vanny watched as he began to make his way over to the wall to lean against. His pale hand gripped at the peeling wallpaper, and it didn’t take long for him to begin to sink to his knees. That was when Vanny finally moved forward; guilty hands outstretched to make sure that the man didn’t fall and hurt himself.

“What if they’re dead, Vanessa?” He croaked out miserably, gripping at his pants.

Vanny was silent. She just stared at him; clueless what to say or do.

“What.. what if we get shut down? I… God, I just… I hope they turn up…”

Vanny slowly bent down and rested on her knees, kneeling in front of the man.

“What  _ if  _ the place shuts down?” She asked in a soft, concerned voice.

“Then I’ll get scrapped.” He choked out bluntly.

Vanny found herself reaching out for his hands; she wasn’t sure why she did, honestly. It came naturally, and it was purely out of instinct and the overwhelming desire to quell his anxiety.

She felt a horrible sensation in her chest and throat.  _ Her  _ anxieties were getting the better of her as well. “You run,” She hissed out in a shaky voice. “You run away, Thomas. If they shut this place down, you run.”

Thomas shook and held onto her hands tight, unable to think properly as his world crumbled around him. “You’ll run.” She repeated. Thomas nodded, holding onto her just a little tighter.   
“I’ll run.”


	8. Chapter 8

Dave pulled Vanny against his chest with a pleased grin. Vanny smiled softly, looking tired but content as the man littered her neck with a series of playful kisses.

“Alright, alright.” Vanny giggled quietly as she pushed Dave away.

Jack was still sound asleep on his bed, seemingly comfortable despite his source of heat having already clambered out from under the blankets for the day. Vanny ran a brush through her hair with a groggy smile, attempting to untangle the multicolored mess without hurting herself.

“What’s on the agenda for today?” She asked in a soft voice; not wanting to wake Jack. She stared into the mirror on Jack’s dresser as she attempted to get her hair in order for the day.

“Setting the tubes ablaze?” She questioned as she continued to run the brush through her hair. 

Dave grinned wider and shook his head. “No. Not today, Van-Van.”

Vanny stiffened a little and turned to stare at him; confused and taken back.   
“What? But… Vegas-”

“Vegas will still be there, Van-Van,” Dave assured her with a wide grin as he wrapped his long, slender arms around her body, pulling her close and tight against his chest.

“We just have some more fun to partake in, first…” Dave leaned down and planted a gentle kiss on her neck. “That’s what you were saying, wasn’t it? We should slow down?” The man’s hands slowly trailed down Vanny’s sides, ghosting over the tank top she had worn to bed.

“What changed your mind?” Vanny asked softly as she returned to brushing her hair, repressing a shudder. Dave let out a low chuckle as his hands finally came to a halt, resting on her hips.

“I thought about what you said, Van. We should really leave a mark here, y’kno? We’ve gotten far too quick about this like you said. Vegas is fun n’ all, but it’s  _ so _ much better when we’ve really raised hell beforehand.”

Vanny couldn’t say she disagreed, but Dave’s sudden change of plans was a little… odd.

He always loved planning and scheming, and he liked to stick to those plans. For him to change them so abruptly felt  _ wrong. _ Vanny swallowed down her confusion and simply enjoyed the feeling of hands on her hips, lips on her neck, and the sounds of Jack beginning to stir awake.

* * *

Vanny sucked in a deep breath of mold and despair as she looked around Freddy’s. Despite the disappearance of five children just yesterday, the place was unsurprisingly packed. Children were still running around without a care, blissfully unaware of the danger that had just entered the building. Vanny looked across the sea of children, then back to Jack and Dave. They were plotting something, but Vanny couldn’t be bothered to involve herself at the moment. She wanted to find Thomas first, and then she’d assist Jack and Dave in whatever they’d plotted.

Vanny watched as they walked off in the direction of the safe room before turning to head towards the office, unaware of the two sets of burning white pupils that watched her go.

The office was a mess. Crumpled papers had been thrown across the desk without a care, and it was obvious by one glance that Thomas hadn’t been faring too well. He was currently at his desk, shuffling through papers he’d already gone through ten times over. He was shaking, and Vanny could see that he was sweating through his dark blue suit.

“Th...Thomas?” she gently called. The phone-head looked up at her, shaking his head frantically.

“Van-Vanessa…” He shakily choked as he stood, barely able to keep standing.

“We haven’t found them,” He whined out miserably. Vanny felt a pang of guilt but said nothing.

She knew where they were.  _ The dumpster hadn’t been touched since she slipped them in there. _

“The cameras… They- I… Someone- someone broke them. There’s no footage. It’s all gone-”

Vanny felt like the world was fading around her. Everything felt heavy, and the only thing she could focus on was Thomas. The monitors nearby were filled with distracting static, and Vanny distantly felt her legs attempting to give out. She just barely pulled through, managing to not topple over.

“Ness... They’re... “ Thomas fell silent again and raised his hand up to cover where his mouth should have been. He still did it out of instinct without thinking. It really hadn’t been that long ago since… “They’re dead,” Thomas stated flatly, and hearing it out loud made Vanny tense.

“I know they are, and I know that we’re not going to find them.” he continued. Running a Freddy’s was a stressful, nightmare-inducing experience, and Vanny knew that he had to be aware of how much this happened at other locations. Kids went missing, bodies were rarely found, and at the end of the day, the killers paid no price for their sins. The phoneys who had failed to keep their location afloat were almost always sent to the factory, and that was the horrific reality that Thomas was currently faced with. The killer had to be one of his employees, but he had no idea who it was. Dave seemed like a likely candidate, but the approaching threat of his scrapping was making Thomas desperate to find someone to pin the blame on.

That was what he had been taught to do, after all. Dave seemed like the type to strangle kids, anyway. If Thomas had to make an educated guess, that purple freak was the most likely to have been the guilty one.

Vanny stood frozen in place for some time, waiting for Thomas to continue. When he didn’t, she found it in herself to speak. “So, what now?” She questioned bluntly. Thomas stood and shook his head. There was no way he was admitting that pinning the murder on a possibly innocent employee was his next likely step. “There’s an investigation,” he began, brushing over her question as best he could without making it obvious. “They’re going to try and find the killer,” He muttered sheepishly. Vanny gave a simple nod.  _ She knew there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that this was a murder scene,  _ despite how well she had scrubbed the evidence out of the place.

Five children didn’t just vanish into thin air; especially not at a Freddy’s.

“Did you… see anything, Ness?” Thomas suddenly asked. It was a question she had answered before, both to employers and cops, but this time it felt horrible to hear.

Of course, she  _ had  _ seen something; she had seen everything.

“Like… what?” She questioned in a small voice. She was prepared to lie, despite not wanting to.

What choice did she have? She could lie or be arrested, and she had her doubts that Dave or Jack could do anything to help her if it came to that point. Thomas wrapped his arms around himself and let out a shaky, miserable sigh. “I… I don’t know… Anything.”

Vanny sucked in a small breath and shook her head, uttering a cold, sinful, “No.”

Thomas nodded his head, clearly taking her word for it without further question.

“Alright, well… I uh… I need to go over… things.” He shakily said as he turned back to his desk and the stack of intimidating work ahead of him.  _ The last bit of work he was likely to ever do for Freddy’s, or anywhere, for that matter.  _ The man turned to stare at the woman, and Vanny knew if he could show emotion, his face would be plastered with worry.

“You should get to work, Ness. I… Be careful, please?”

Thomas had no idea if the killer solely preyed upon children, and the thought of her getting hurt was making him nauseous. Vanny hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded.    
“Yeah, yeah… I will,” she assured him in a soft voice.

Thomas stared at her for a moment longer before snatching up a stack of papers.

Vanny turned and slipped out of the office; she didn’t feel welcomed there any longer.

_ She was a liar. She was a rat. She was a bastard who for once, was feeling regret. _

Vanny felt no shame for butchering those kids, but if Thomas did get sent off, she would be directly responsible. Vanny shoved her hands into her coat pockets and trudged through the halls with her head low. She was going to have to help him run, she knew. There was no way in hell she was leaving him to the hands of Freddy’s. They had already done enough to him.

As she made her way out into the dining area, she caught sight of Jack from across the room. He was staring at her, but he quickly averted his gaze. Vanny blinked and stood still for a moment, but eventually continued towards him, unsure how much more havoc she really wanted to unleash here anymore.


	9. Chapter 9

Vanny stared blankly ahead at the heap of trash that was once recognizable as Balloon boy. The robot had been defiled with a new paint job and crudely-applied eyelashes, transforming his shit-eating grin into a lipstick covered abomination.   
_ This was pointless. This was all pointless. _

Vanny took a step away from the robot, looking down at its horribly applied new pink paint.

What was the point of this? Vanny had her doubts that defiling BB would really get much of a reaction out of Thomas at the moment. He was more worried about attempting to save this location, despite the fact that both she and Thomas knew it was ultimately going to crash and burn. It had already crashed, she supposed; now it was just a waiting game of how long they could keep the fire at bay before it burnt everything up.

This felt wrong. Something felt horribly off, and it was making Vanny extremely uneasy.

It was so unlike Dave to put off Vegas like this. There had to be some bigger plan at play, here. Vanny wasn’t an idiot; she knew that Dave hadn’t postponed Vegas just to give BB a new paint job. Dave was hard to read at times, but Jack seemed a little… off.

He had been quieter than normal, and Vanny was beginning to worry that something was wrong with him. She had a feeling that he wasn’t happy with her, at the very least. They were still in Freddy’s, after all. They should have been living it up in Vegas already, but Vanny had somehow convinced Dave to stay here just a bit longer. Jack was probably pissed that he wasn’t high as a kite in a run-down hotel room right now. Vanny found herself not even wanting to ask Jack what was bothering him when she clearly knew the answer.  _ She was the problem. _

She was the reason that he wasn’t being smothered in the cheap perfume the hookers wore; she was the reason that Dave hadn’t excitedly drug him to  _ their city _ yet.

Vanny was an inconvenience to him at the moment, and it was clear that he wasn’t happy with her.

Vanny stared at Balloon Boy as Dave laughed about something right next to her; something she had been far too distracted to catch. Jack took a step closer to the animatronic and gave it one harsh kick, sending it toppling over. Vanny jolted from where she was crouched in front of it, and she looked up to Jack with a blank expression. Jack’s focus was entirely on Balloon Boy; he didn’t even notice her staring.

“You wanna ruin the duck next, Van-Van?” Dave questioned from where he stood behind her. There was a wide grin plastered to his face; a stark contrast to Jack’s unamused scowl.

It took Vanny a moment to register what Dave had asked, but she formed a reply as she stood to her feet. “Chicken,” She softly corrected unenthusiastically. 

Dave’s smile faltered just a bit, and he leaned forward, clearly concerned for her as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Ya doin’ alright, Van? You don’t look so hot.”

Vanny managed a weak unconvincing smile that could have passed as being tired to anyone else, but Dave knew better. _ He could read that woman like a book. _

“M’fine.” She tried to assure him. “Just tired,” 

Dave wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t express his doubt.

“Is it the bad time of the month?” He questioned in a barely audible whisper.

Jack overheard and shot a glance in their direction, visibly repulsed by what he’d just heard. Vanny shook her head and slipped away from Dave’s hold.   
“No, no,” She huffed with a wince. It was amazing that she could still be taken back by what came out of that man’s mouth. “I really am just tired, Davey.” She tried to assure him, and by the expression on his face, she assumed that she had finally convinced him of her half-lie. 

She was tired, but that wasn’t why he was acting so sluggish. She hadn’t slept well the night before, but everything going on around her felt like it was going to suffocate her. Vanny felt like she was sinking into a pit; one she couldn’t crawl out of herself. Did Jack and Dave ever feel this way? Vanny didn’t have time to ponder about their emotions long. 

“Maybe if you would’ve gone home after work, you wouldn’t be tired,” Jack commented from where he stood nearby. Vanny narrowed her eyes at him and tilted her head up definitely as she crossed her arms. “I was cleaning up  _ your _ mess.” She snapped bitterly.   
“My mess?” Jack scoffed. “I’m not the one that uses a fucking axe and paints the place-”

Vanny stiffened a little. They were being far too loud about this out in the open.

“Alright,” Dave butted in as he pulled Vanny just a little closer to himself, much to Jack’s visible annoyance. “You’re both messy bastards. Now shut up and help me desecrate the plastic bear.”

* * *

Six o’clock came around before Vanny knew it, and she was tugged out of the building by eager purple hands. Jack glanced back at his shadows as he clambered out the window, looking a little more irritated than he had at the start of his shift. Between Dave going back on his word to not stick around and Vanny’s unusual behavior, he wasn’t in the best mood. Vegas was delayed, and Dave was clinging to Vanny like a lost puppy. It baffled Jack how she had managed to actually convince Dave to wait, but he knew there was something that Dave was keeping from both of them. Vanny followed Dave with some reluctance, clearly not ready to leave for the day. Jack watched as she slowed her pace, fed Dave obvious bullshit, and then slipped away, leaving Dave alone with him. Jack was sitting on the edge of the window; one leg hanging outside while one still remained in. He watched in silence until Vanny was out of sight down the hall. Dave watched her go as well; not uttering a sound until she was definitely out of earshot.   
“Somethin’s wrong, Sportsy.” He said in a low voice as he approached the window.

“No shit.” Jack huffed as he finished clambering over the window. Dave wasted no time before joining him outside. The day was dreary and the weather was cold. Most of October had been void of sunlight, but the past week had been nothing but rain and bitter cold. Vanny detested the cold, but Jack and Dave seemed rather welcoming of it. Everything was quiet and calm in the cold, and as the years went on, it seemed to bother them less and less. Jack walked alongside Dave through the grass, keeping his head low as he listened to the aubergine man ramble on.

“Van-Van’s getting … distracted.” Dave began with a roll of his wrist. Jack looked at him in confusion but didn’t bother to speak. He knew that Dave had more to say, and whether he wanted to or not, he was going to hear it. 

“I know she wants to be in Vegas already, Old Sport. Didn’t you see how upset she looked today?” Jack scoffed and shoved his hands into his pockets, shaking his head as they neared his vehicle. 

“If she wanted to be in Vegas, she wouldn’t have insisted on staying.“ Jack attempted to argue, to which Dave just brushed him off with a shake of his head. 

“Maybe she’s grown tired of you,” Jack laughed sarcastically before Dave could continue. Dave didn’t seem amused by the joke in the slightest judging by the glare Jack caught from the corner of his eye. “It ain’t somethin’ to kid about, Old Sport. Somethin’s the matter with her. I just don’t know what.” The two walked in silence for a few moments before Dave continued. 

“It’s that damn phone-head. I know it is.” 

Jack turned and eyed Dave with interest, unsure of where he was heading with any of this.

“He’s luring her into a trap, Sportsy. He’s far too lenient on her… on us.”

“What trap could he possibly be luring her into?” Jack questioned with a raised brow, clearly skeptical of what Dave was saying.

“He’s buttering her up, Sportsy. He’s buttering her up to gain her trust, and then he’s gonna pin the murders on her.” Jack eyed the man next to him with skepticism.

“He was lenient from the start,” Jack began before he could be silenced. “No phone-face has ever attempted to befriend us before pinning the murders on us.” Jack had no doubt in his mind that Vanny may have been the one on the chopping block, but he had his doubts that the phone had some great scheme in mind. If Scott wanted to pin the murders on Vanny, he would simply do it. There was no need to drag her into a false sense of security beforehand. Dave continued.   
“He probably realizes how wild Van-Van is… Better to pacify the sharp-toothed pyromaniac before she realizes she’s been caged.” 

Jack could have argued against Dave’s nonsense, but he was far too tired to exert any energy towards it. Once Dave had an idea in his head, it was usually pointless to attempt to wash it out.

“She’s been staying after her shift, Sportsy. She’s been spending time in that damn office instead of the safe room  _ with us _ .” Jack glanced over at Dave and smirked just a little.

He could have poked and prodded at Dave, teasing about the jealousy that was obviously burning inside of him, but he didn’t. He couldn’t deny that Dave was somewhat justified in his fears, in his own fucked up way. If Vanny found someone else to cling to, there was a chance that Dave would take a backseat to the newcomer. While Jack had  _ high  _ doubts that Vanny would ever actually leave Dave’s side, the aubergine man seemed to be fearful of that possibility, no matter how unlikely it may have been. Vanny was a desperate little leech that had been clinging to his side for what seemed like a lifetime, and Dave seemed intent on keeping her there. Jack was well aware that the pink woman wasn’t going anyplace, but Dave had a scheme in mind, and he was going to be drug into it no matter whose side he took. 

Jack walked beside Dave in relative silence, simply letting the cold October air chill him to the bone as Dave began to reveal his solution to their little dilemma. 


	10. Chapter 10

“It’s not going to be pretty, Ness,” Thomas muttered as he ran his fingers across the fabric of his coat. He needed to feel something against his fingertips; he needed a distraction.

“Nothing about this situation is pretty,” Vanny pointed out with an uncomfortable huff. Nothing could make the situation better. The kids were dead, and for once, Vanny had to be on the side that suffered due to her actions. She always got away scot-free and was even rewarded for her misdeeds with a pleasant getaway to Vegas. Typically, the thought of running off with Jack and Dave for a drug binge sounded… somewhat exciting. It was always fun in the beginning, but the thrill always died away when she woke up alone or was neglected for just a little too long.

Thomas sat in his chair in silence, unknowingly letting the weight of the situation wash over Vanny. She had done this to him, but she had every intention of figuring out a way to get him out of it. Thomas was the property of Freddy’s; he couldn’t simply walk away from it all, but he could sure as hell run. Run to where, though? That was the question that Vanny still hadn’t quite figured out the answer to. Due to his less than ethical programming, Thomas had little to no memory of who he was before. Any family he had- if there was anyone out there who cared about him at all- had been scrubbed from his mind. Their blurred faces would torment him some nights when he laid awake, trying to remember just a little too much, but they were gone. He couldn’t find refuge with people who he didn’t even remember. Vanny wasn’t going to standby and let Thomas be sent off to the factory, but their options were limited. For now, if the restaurant’s fate was sealed, she could hide him away at her place… temporarily, at least. Thomas would see it as nothing more than an act of kindness; he would have no reason to suspect that it was partly driven by guilt. Vanny had no remorse for hacking into those children, none at all. Thomas’ wellbeing was the only thing she was anxious and worried over. 

“They’ll look for me,” Thomas muttered from where he sat. “The company won’t let me go.”

Vanny tapped her claws on the desk where she sat, attempting and failing to remain calm about the situation. She had been in messier jams, and she had pulled herself through. Having someone else to pull through with her was unfamiliar and odd, though. Dave and Jack could usually get themselves out of their own scrapes, but to have someone that she knew  _ couldn’t  _ get himself out of the hole she’d dug felt so… surreal, for lack of a better word.

Jack and Dave often got themselves into stupid situations, but whether it was luck or actual survival instincts that saved them always varied. Thomas was completely defenseless; he had no way to pull himself out of the grave that Vanny had made for him. Even if it hadn’t been dug for  _ him  _ specifically, he had still fallen into it, and Vanny felt obligated to pull him out.   
**_No_ ** _. She wasn’t obligated to do anything. She wanted to pull him out. _

“If… if it comes down to it, you’re more than… welcome to hide at my place,” Vanny muttered gently. Thomas was quiet for a while, but he did eventually turn to face her.

“Just until things calm down…” She continued. There was a period of silence that began to border on the uncomfortable side, so Vanny spoke up again. “Unless you have somewhere else you’d rather bunker down-” Thomas was already shaking his head and interjecting before Vanny could finish. 

“No- No… It’s just…. Why? Why in the hell do you care so much about what happens to me?” Another silence filled the room, and Vanny sat atop the desk, thinking over her next words very, very carefully.  _ Guilt wasn’t what was driving her to stay here. _ Guilt wasn’t forcing her to linger after her shifts just to spend a little time with the phone. It wasn’t guilt that had made her ask Dave to put Vegas on hold, or offer up her home as a refuge for her unintentional ‘victim.’

Thomas was… unusual. Maybe it was the simple fact that he hadn’t run a Freddy’s for nearly as long as the other phone-headed bosses she’d had, or maybe it was simply due to a softer heart, but he was the kindest boss she’d ever had. Sure, he still expected her and the others to do their jobs, but the constant yelling and patronization were missing. Thomas was her boss, but he didn’t feel like an authority figure. Vanny gripped at her pants and finally opened her mouth.

“We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Regret filled Vanny as those words came out, but she didn’t dare stop them. The following quiet that filled the room made her uneasy, and fears of beratement and rejection plagued her. Thomas let out a small noise akin to an amused scoff.

“Friends hide each other in their homes?” He questioned. Vanny simply stared at him.

He almost seemed like he was being playful about the ordeal, despite the severity of the situation. Vanny continued to sit on the desk with a blank stare, clearly at a complete loss at how to respond. Even though Thomas lacked an expression to read, his following words seemed sincere.

“I… I consider you a friend, Ness. Yes.” He clarified in a soft tone. Vanny visibly relaxed upon hearing that, and she returned to running her thumbs across the fabric of her pants.

“Friends hide each other in their homes,” Vanny assured him as she stared down at the floor.

There was a gentle smile on her face; it was a sight that seemed so unfamiliar yet right to Thomas. Her creepy grin that had initially put him off had somehow changed. The more time they spent together, that grin seemed to soften, and Thomas may have even dared to say it looked somewhat normal, now. Maybe it was just Ness warming up to him and softening up, or maybe he was simply growing numb to her uncomfortable gaze and horrific grin. 

There was so much about Vanny that wasn’t normal, but it made him feel just a little less abnormal when he was around her. He had no eyes while she sported red ones; he lacked a smile while she showed off a jagged grin. Her skin was an unnatural pink, and he was littered in scars that he hid under layers of fabric. Thomas was meek and timid, while Vanny was outgoing and wild. They were different; the two were  _ very  _ different, and yet they were still sitting together in that office. 

A killer, and her blissfully ignorant companion. Vanny knew that if Thomas found out that the blood was on  _ her  _ hands, he probably wouldn’t be sitting that close to her. Vanny had her doubts that he would have refrained from calling the cops immediately if he knew the truth. Leaving a shocked and betrayed Thomas in the dust while she ran off to party didn’t seem fair, though. If she had to stay behind to ensure Thomas’ safety, she would do it. What was one missed trip to Vegas? Her house wouldn’t be all that lonely with Thomas around, and at least she would wake up every morning knowing what to expect. Vegas was a fun, yet terrifying thrill. Whether she would wake up pressed against Dave or Jack’s side or in the streets was always a gamble. With every shot she took, Vanny would always make sure to take in the sight of  _ them.  _ Jack’s stupid fucking gap-toothed grin and Dave’s intoxicated hand motions as he rambled off their ‘next big plan.’ She took in every detail she could; the way they smiled, the sound of their laughter. Vanny always held onto those memories as best she could, because she never knew which shot would be the last one she remembered. Waking up alone was just a given; it was inevitable. It was normal, and Vanny knew that there would never be a trip where she got a proper goodbye from either of them. 

Thomas wasn’t going anywhere. She was all that he had, and she was going to make sure that he got out of this. Vanny briefly wondered if Dave would even care if she went to Vegas with them or not. Leaving Thomas scared and alone in her house while she ran off to snort coke and get wasted didn’t sound very appealing. Worry would have just been gnawing away at her the entire trip if she did that. 

Vanny was pulled from her thoughts as Thomas shifted in his seat and stood to his feet.

“Right… well… If I’m going to be hiding at your place-”

“If worse comes to worst-” Vanny gently clarified, to which Thomas simply nodded.

“If it comes down to it,” he assured her before continuing. “I need to get some things packed up.” Vanny looked at him questioningly but didn’t have to question him.

“Just a few clothes.” Thomas clarified. It wasn’t like he really had much else to his name… or anything else, actually. Vanny watched as the man grabbed his keys from the desk and began to head towards the office door. She was quick to slip off of the desk and follow, not uttering a single word as they left the office in its cluttered state. It wasn’t like it mattered that much, anyway. The scuttlers were there, mess or not. Vanny walked behind Thomas in silence, and the eerie quiet of the restaurant made her feel just a little uncomfortable. Maybe it was the silence, or maybe it was the way the robots on the nearby stage twitched and convulsed.   
_ They saw her. _   
  
Vanny turned and glanced at the bots with a scowl as she followed Thomas out.

She didn’t regret what she’d done.


	11. Chapter 11

Soft fur surrounded her. All she knew was the warmth they kept trapped against her, and all they knew was the glitter that she unintentionally coated them with. The morning was growing old, but the sun was a comfort against her skin. Vanny stirred awake as sunlight shone in on her eyes, and she shifted with a groan in her bed. The various rabbit plushies surrounding her made her want to be pulled back into that blissful nothingness that was sleep. Quickly fading memories of a dream stuck in her mind, and even though the details were ebbing away, she could still recall the soft ringing of a phone, distant laughter, and a warm feeling. The sun had most likely been the culprit of the last detail, having bled into her dream, but Vanny didn’t pay any of it any mind. Her alarm clock hadn’t yet gone off, and she had more time to drift in and out of consciousness despite not feeling tired. She wasn’t letting a single moment of the time she could be sleeping go to waste. There came a point where she couldn’t force herself back asleep, unfortunately, so Vanny began to shuffle into a sitting position amongst the pile of rabbit plushies she was comfortably nestled into. The sunshine was pleasant against her skin, and she just sat in silence as the quiet of her bedroom slowly pulled her fuzzy mind back to reality.  _ Work.  _ She needed to work today. Memories of the night before came flooding back; everything from promising Thomas sanctuary to the cereal she had shoveled down her throat before passing out as soon as her body hit the mattress.

The memories of the sugary cereal pulled her to reality just a little more. She had to get out of bed to eat, though, and that was exactly what she did. A few stuffed rabbits tumbled down off of the bed, landing at her feet. She paid them no mind; they would be retrieved from the floor when she got home. Cereal seemed more alluring than saving her fluffy companions from collecting lint from her carpet, so Vanny stepped around them and headed to the kitchen. 

Breakfast was boring and bland, just like it always was. A small jar was promptly pulled from one of the shelves of the fridge, and Vanny drank down her concoction as she ran around the house, grabbing her coat, keys, and tucking her knife under her shirt, safely sheathed on her hip. She drank the contents of the jar without issue, but to most people, the amount of sugar in it would have had them cringing and shying away. Vanny consumed more sugar from her little ‘wake up’ drinks in the morning than any normal human should have ingested in an entire day. Vanny enjoyed her little morning ritual, even if she didn’t  _ always  _ have time to chug down her foul mixture every single morning. The woman briefly pondered if it could be considered a ritual if she skipped it some days, but more pressing matters made her abandon her curiosity completely. She needed to get to work.

* * *

Freddy’s was noticeably quieter than normal. There weren’t nearly as many children running about, and even though Vanny had been through the motions several times before, it was a little unsettling to see it happening this time around. 

There was no hope for this location, and she knew that. It was practically over, and that was set in stone. The only thing she could do now was pull Thomas to safety.

There was a faint jingling of keys that caught her attention, and the woman tensed up as her eyes fell upon the pests of Freddy’s that she hated the most. A couple of cops were standing not too far from her, and Vanny made it a point to keep her eyes downcast as she hurried past them. They seemed just a little too distracted to notice her, thankfully, so she made it to the safe room without incident. Just as she expected, Dave and Jack were inside looking rather panicked. Dave looked to Vanny with wide eyes, and he made his way over to her and gripped at her shoulders in an instant. “Van-Van-” He began in a shaky voice. Before he could continue, Vanny gave him a soft nod. “I know,” She informed him as her gaze drifted over to Jack. The orange man seemed on edge too, but she couldn’t blame either of them. There was no proof of their crimes that could have been found and used against them; Vanny had scrubbed the safe room spotless. There wasn’t a single drop of blood left; not a single strand of hair. 

The cameras held no footage against them, but the anxiety was eating away at the trio as they lingered in the darkness of the safe room. They should have already run far away from there, but Vanny had prevented that. Vanny had no idea if Thomas would give the cops anything that could have been used against Dave or Jack, but if they could all keep calm and collected until tomorrow, everything would be alright. Her mind was swirling with choices, and she found herself shaking ever so slightly without realizing it. She had high doubts that Thomas would pin this on her, but Jack and Dave weren’t in the clear. Thomas was definitely cowardly, as most phone-heads tended to be, but he seemed far more hesitant to pin a murder on any of his employees than any other phone-head Vanny had known. Whether it was a flaw in his programming or a remaining sliver of human decency, Vanny was unsure. One thing was certain; there would be no fires set today. With that many cops crawling around, there was no way in hell they wouldn’t get caught. Vanny had only seen two before hurriedly slipping into the safety of their unknown hideaway, but she knew there could have been more she’d missed. Setting a fire with any number of pigs sniffing around was dangerous and stupid, _ and all three of them knew that.  _ Vanny was going to have to help Jack sneak Dave out the back window without being detected. She and Jack could fend for themselves, but Dave was too well known by the cops. Having him around made Vanny feel just a little safer, but having him around at the price of his own safety wasn’t something she would even consider. Jack was already creeping towards the safe room door, ready to smuggle the bastard out and create any necessary distractions. Vanny sucked in a deep breath as she followed behind Jack, prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. Deep down, she knew they’d be fine. With all three of them working together, they were practically unstoppable. Luck was always on their side, and Vanny was confident that they had plenty of that luck left.

That's what she told herself to calm her anxiety and keep from losing her breakfast, anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay :'3


	12. Chapter 12

Vanny kept a sympathetic expression plastered to her face. It looked genuine, and the cop in front of her seemingly bought it. 

_ She had seen nothing. _

As soon as the man had turned to leave, Vanny was letting her forced smile fall. She sucked in a shaky breath and continued towards the office. Dave was safe, at least. She hadn’t ever seen him clamber out a window that fast in her life. If she didn’t have obligations to stay, and if it wouldn’t have been shady as all hell, she would have been right behind him. 

Thomas was in his office, unsurprisingly. He was frantically pacing back and forth, and Vanny could have sworn she saw sweat sliding down his plastic rotary phone head. 

“Ness,” He began as soon as she had shut the door. “They’re setting up a sting operation-”

Vanny knew it was coming, but hearing those words made her tense. The fact that he was openly admitting this to her made Vanny realize that Thomas wholly believed she wasn’t at fault for this. Guilt was a bitch of an emotion she was beginning to grow familiar with, but she swallowed it down and paid attention to the man in front of her as he spoke.

“If we leave tomorrow…” He fell silent for a moment, but he eventually continued. “Then we can avoid it altogether.” Vanny stared at him as he continued to pace and fiddle with his fingers.

“And the cops won’t find it suspicious that you vanished in the midst of a murder investigation-”

Thomas froze in his tracks and stared at her. It took Vanny far too long to realize what she had just said, but there was no taking it back. Her eyes widened the moment it clicked, and she desperately grasped at any excuse she could think of, blurting out the first one that came to mind. She opened her mouth to speak, but Thomas spoke first. 

“You...really think they were murdered?” He asked. His voice was soft and seeking, and it was clear that he wanted her honest opinion, but Vanny seemed ashamed to answer truthfully. She had already let it slip, though, so there was no point in trying to go back now. She didn’t  _ think  _ anything; she  _ knew _ .

“Freddy’s has a… reputation.” She began in a flat tone. Thomas slumped over a little but nodded. He knew. Of course, he knew. Freddy’s was a breeding ground for more than just scuttlers and rats; murders were something that Freddy’s had become known for, and ultimately, that was what was killing it. The health violations and vermin weren't what was driving Freddy’s into the ground, it was the things that were invited in. It was the things being paid to be there that was killing it.

Thomas hesitated but gave a nod. Of course… _ Of course.  _ He’d already lost all hope of those kids turning up alive, but to know that  _ nobody  _ else still held onto the belief that they were okay felt wrong. He knew the reality of the situation, yet the thought of those children actually being dead made him sick to his stomach.

Nausea and anxiety were becoming something Thomas knew well, and he despised it.

He despised those peeling grey walls that boxed him in there; he detested the smell of pizza and the sticky feeling that the floor always had. He hated the fact that he was nothing more than property to this goddamn place, and as much as the entire situation made him want to curl up into a ball and cry, some good seemed to be coming out of it. This location would be shut down whether they got the ‘killer’ in handcuffs or not at that sting operation. Freddy’s was a magnet for tragedy, whether it was a group of children vanishing into thin air or unfortunate employees bleeding out in dark, secluded rooms. Nothing good came from Freddy’s, and Thomas knew that. Nobody could save those kids. Whoever had taken them had already gotten away with it. Pinning the crime on a most likely innocent employee wasn’t something that Thomas could live with, and he knew that. The blame had to fall on someone at the end of the day, but he had no idea how any of this was going to play out.

“It doesn’t matter if they find it suspicious, Ness.” Thomas finally huffed. “It’s either that or… being sent off.” The man seemed to deflate a little at that last part, and Vanny gave him a sympathetic look. Thomas raised his hands up suddenly and continued to speak before Vanny even had the chance to say anything more. He was making gestures with his hands as he spoke, and Vanny struggled to keep her gaze locked onto his phone-face. He ranted on about how terrible the police were at finding any evidence to bag the killer; he complained about how stressful the entire situation was, and how he had been unable to get any decent amount of real rest. “I just…” His shoulders slumped in defeat, and the energy he had been showing melted away in an instant. He was so tired of all of this; he was tired of having to sweep Freddy’s problems under the rug and act like he didn’t know what was going on when crying parents confronted him, begging to know where their child was. Thomas would have been content if he never set foot in a Freddy’s again, and if all went according to plan, he wouldn’t have to. The man directed his gaze at Vanny who had been standing motionless right next to him the entire time he’d been ranting. She was a very good listener, and Thomas found himself not regretting opening up to her. Thomas realized at that moment that she was the only person he truly had. She was the only one he trusted enough to open up to; she was the only one he was certain wasn’t behind the grisly murders. Vanessa was the only person he trusted, and he knew that she was the one who was going to get him out of this godforsaken hellhole. Tomorrow afternoon, he’d leave all of this behind and never look back. It was a petrifying thought, but he had Vanny to cling to through it all. She seemed so calm in this storm, and he had no idea how she had kept her cool for this long. Thomas realized he had probably been quiet in his thoughts for some time when Vanny wrapped herself around him. The sudden embrace made him jolt, but it didn’t take long for him to relax and hug her back. Her grip was tight, and his was firm. The office was relatively silent apart from the muffled sounds of arcade machines and chatter, and Thomas found himself not caring about  _ any  _ of it the longer he was wrapped in that woman’s arms. He knew that he was going to be okay. He was going to get out of Freddy’s, and the nightmare of confronting petrified parents would be a thing of the past. Vanny held onto him tight, and as Thomas felt her fingers press into his back as she gripped onto him, his anxieties began to melt away. Tomorrow he was going to leave Freddy’s for good.  _ It was almost over. _


	13. Chapter 13

The sunlight felt comforting against his skin. Thomas stood outside of Freddy’s despite how cold the early morning air was. The blue jacket clinging to his skin kept him warm enough to stay outside just a bit longer, and the sun tempted him to remain leaning against the wall until the autumn clouds ultimately came along to cover it. It was nearly noon; it was almost time for Ness to get there. It was almost time to escape for good.

Thomas watched as the clouds crept closer and closer to the sun, and an odd sense of nostalgia filled him that he couldn’t quite place. Clouds had always been something that drew him in, and even in the midst of his current situation, he found a small amount of comfort in watching them move so far above him. The air felt nice, and even though he couldn’t breathe it in anymore, it still felt pleasant against his exposed hands and neck. Ness would be there in less than an hour and knowing that made his stomach twist and flutter with anxiety and excitement. Being outside instead of dealing with the chaos inside felt both relaxing and horrible, but he planned on returning to his office one last time. That was where Ness planned to meet him, and the mere thought of finally being taken away from Freddy’s overwhelmed him in the best possible way. Thomas shivered as the sun was finally engulfed by the clouds and his source of warmth was stolen away. Inside would be a bit warmer at least, but if that was really worth dealing with the screaming toddlers and the annoying music of the arcade machines was debatable. Thomas pushed away from the wall with a shiver and began to trudge along the sidewalk. The closer he got to those doors, the more he realized just how much he actually hated the place. Why anyone still went there of their own free will was a mystery to him, and it was a mystery he knew he’d never have the answer to. Ignorance was bliss, he supposed, and anyone who kept going to that mold filled deathtrap was pretty damn ignorant.

Thomas pulled one of the front doors open and the sounds overwhelmed him as soon as he did. There weren’t as many customers inside as there usually would have been, yet the noise felt like it was going to suffocate him. The fresh air he’d felt against his skin was now replaced with muggier, heavier feeling air, and it made him want to turn and run.  _ It wasn’t time to run just yet, though. _ Thomas slipped his hands into his coat pockets and shuddered as he tried to keep his cool. It felt like every pair of eyes in that room were locked onto him, and he wouldn’t have been too surprised if that was the actual case. Having a phone for a head did him no favors of helping him blend in, but the eyes on him felt different this time. It was irrational to even think that anyone here knew of his plans to leave Freddy’s behind, but it was a fear that tormented him nonetheless. No one here knew that he was about to escape, and Thomas was going to keep it that way. His footsteps felt heavy and slow as he paced through the building to his office, but he tried to keep a bounce in his step. He was finally leaving this place, so why did he feel an overwhelming sense of loss? His head swirled with confusion, and the man shivered as he tried to suppress the urge to find a dark room to sort through his thoughts in. There would be time to sift through the confusing blurs of what were once memories when he was safe. Now wasn’t the time to slip into a panicked state of confusion as who he was before Freddy’s tried to make itself known. Those memories hurt, and the way they blurred and melted in his mind made them feel impossible to grasp onto. They evaded him, and attempting to hold onto them had proved pointless and painful. It was better to live through his abomination of an existence without knowing what he had lost, Thomas supposed. Whatever was triggering his unease had to do with leaving, he concluded with an uncomfortable sigh. He hated this place; he detested the smells and sounds it harbored within its walls. Thomas despised the safe room and all of the horrific things it shielded from the customer’s eyes. The mold wouldn’t be missed, and neither would the scuttlers. Freddy’s and all of its problems were no longer his. Other poor souls would still have to deal with the nightmares that were once his own, and the fact that other people in his exact position would never be granted freedom made him sick. The feeling of being watched still made him uneasy, but as soon as he slipped into his office, Thomas relaxed. Ness would be there soon, and as soon as they left he would be hidden in her home. The only eyes that would be staring him down would be hers. Thomas paced over to his desk as thoughts of those eyes swirled in his head and calmed him. A soothing red; an inhumane red. Vanessa had eyes unlike anyone he’d ever met before, but they were a little more welcoming than tiny white pinpricks in a sea of black. Ness was odd, but so was he. There was nothing in Thomas’ life that was ‘normal’ anymore if he were being completely honest with himself. He couldn’t recall a time when things were normal.

Sitting down in his chair one last time didn’t seem too appealing, he realized as he stared down at it blankly. He’d spent so many hours of his life sitting in that damn thing; being forced to work for the company that was at fault for what had happened to him. Thomas tightly gripped the back of his chair as everything washed over him. He was backing away and hiding, but there was really no other choice if he wanted to get out of this alive.  _ Those children would never receive justice, and he would never know who had actually stolen them away. _

The sound of his office door opening barely registered to him, but he didn’t bother to turn around. His desk sat before him; it was an unpleasant mess of paperwork and dead ends that led to no justice, but it was time to leave that all behind. It wasn’t his problem. 

It just wasn’t his issue to deal with anymore. Ness was here, and it was time to go.


	14. Chapter 14

Thomas took in the sight of his messy desk one last time before turning away; he was content with leaving it like that. There was nothing more for him here. 

No sooner had he turned around, Thomas was faced with nothing but fear and terror.

Dread filled him as black eyes pierced his soul instead of red ones.  _ Ness wasn’t here. _

The first instinct Thomas had was to flee, but one glance at his office door let him know that he had two visitors instead of one. The shorter of the two at the door wore a scowl, while the ever-grinning Dave wore a grin as he approached.    
Whatever those two wanted, it was clear that they had come there with ill intent. Jack stood directly in front of the door;  _ he was guarding it. He was trapping Thomas inside. _

“E...employee,” Thomas stammered as he did his best to stand up straight in a failed attempt of making himself seem threatening. “You’re not permitted to be in here-”

Thomas’ words caught in his throat as he caught sight of exactly what Dave was holding in his hands. The lights of the office glistened off of the metal bat as Dave gripped it tight. The closer he got, the more Thomas’ urge to run overwhelmed him. There was nowhere to run to, though, and he knew that. “Employee-” The words came out, yet they felt so weightless and void of meaning. Dave continued to approach with that unnerving look in his eyes. It was almost like a hunger; a need for violence, if his weapon was any indicator. Dave didn’t stop, and Thomas found himself darting for the door before he could even register that he was moving.

Jack stood in his way, and the orange man lunged forward to meet him.

A sudden pain overwhelmed Thomas at that moment, but it took him a few seconds to realize what had just happened. Jack’s chest was pressed against his own, and the orange man’s hand was gripping onto his shoulder tight. Jack’s other hand grasped firmly onto a knife; one that had just been plunged directly into the phone man’s stomach. Thomas felt like he was attempting to suck in breaths despite not actually being able to anymore. His mind completely blanked as the pain surged through his body, and the blade reminded him of sharp metal he’d practically been embedded with not all that long ago. It was a familiar pain, but it hurt all the same. Thomas desperately pushed Jack away, and the blade slipped out without any resistance. The wound burned, and Thomas gripped at it in an attempt to stop the bleeding as he stumbled back and away from Jack. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to force his way out through the door no matter how close he was to freedom. If he could make it out of the office, people would see the scene unfolding and he’d have a decent chance of getting help. The office was secluded, though, and in there it was just the three of them.

Thomas realized with a pained shudder that Dave was still behind him. There was no time to turn around before that bat met his head, and the force of the swing sent him to the ground.

The entire world spun as a ringing filled his head, leaving Thomas gripping pointlessly at the cold tile floors below him. Another hard swing to his head left him quivering on the floor as the resounding sound of his head cracking filled the small space, making Dave grip his bat tighter in satisfaction. Blood was pooling out from his wounds, decorating the checkered tiles with a crimson red. A series of horrible noises escaped him, almost as if he were choking, despite no longer having a mouth. His phone had been knocked off of its stands and was now lying on the floor nearby, still attached by the curled white cord on the side of his head.

“S-Stop…” Thomas managed in a weak voice. Jack glared at the man at his feet and bent down to grab ahold of the phone. Blood had splattered across the side of it, but it was undamaged. Jack brought his already-bloody blade up to the cord, pressing against it much too hard. It only took one hard slice to detach it from the rest of Thomas, and the phone-head made a pained gasp as the line was sliced. Jack examined the phone in his hands for a moment before losing interest and tossing it aside, clearly uncaring if it received any damage in the process of meeting the floor; that’s what they were there to do.  _ They were there to deal damage. _

“Let’s see if we can bust a hole in em’, Sportsy.” Dave hummed as he slammed his bat onto the floor below him, shattering a single tile. Thomas flinched and tried to distance himself from the two, but Dave was already following. The man wore a proud smirk on his face, and it was evident that he didn’t intend to let Thomas put any distance between them. Jack just stood in silence, watching as the man attempted and failed to scramble away from Dave. It was difficult to properly shuffle away when one hand was gripping at his stab wound, though. A good amount of blood was still pouring out from it, and it was staining his clothing in a familiar way. Even though he was an adult, he was going down about as easy as a child would. 

_ Both Jack and Dave knew just how easy children went down. _ _   
_ It was evident that Thomas wasn’t a fighter, but he was more than capable of begging.

Unfortunately, His pleas fell upon uncaring ears, and Dave swung the bat at Thomas yet again, hitting his phone head as hard as he possibly could. The plastic cracked, and a ding filled the room as Thomas fell onto his side and trembled in pain and fear. Jack stood nearby, watching as the man weakly attempted to raise his hand to shield himself from the following blows.   
  


Jack watched in silence as Dave continued to beat the man. He felt nothing as he stared ahead at the scene before him. He wasn’t feeling the relief he thought he would or the rush that usually came when stealing the life from someone. He had no idea why Thomas wasn’t putting up a fight, but whether that was due to his programming or that was just how he was naturally wired, Jack didn’t know or care. The room smelled of blood and mold, and that scent was a familiar combination that Jack knew well. Everything about that situation felt so familiar yet foreign, and Jack was beginning to grow uncomfortable. Another loud crack sent Jack taking a step forward, and Dave excitedly looked to him with a wide grin. “You wanna get a few good swings in, Sportsy?” The question was one that Jack didn’t even need to think about. Of course he wanted to get a few swings in. Thomas was saying something that Jack didn’t care to pay attention to as he handed off his bloody knife to Dave in exchange for the bat. They were pleas, he knew, but  _ he couldn’t bring himself to care.  _ They had already started this, and they weren’t backing out now. The phone man below him had no way of expressing his emotion through the plastic that was his prison, but Jack knew he was pained and afraid. The phone had chosen this, though. He had sealed his fate when he had gotten a job at whatever location he’d crawled into a suit and died at. Every second spent in a Freddy’s location was a deathwish; it was just  _ what  _ got its victims that varied in the end. Whether the people that walked in those glass doors fell prey to knives, teeth or disease was anyone’s guess, but working there almost guaranteed tragedy. Having your head crammed into a rotary phone wasn’t an ideal fate, but having that phone bashed off by an aluminum bat wasn’t much better. Jack knew that this Phoney was either going to die on this floor or in the factory. _ The man on the floor had chosen his fate whether he knew it or not; Jack was just sealing it. _ Jack raised the bat above his head without a second thought and swung down as hard as he could manage.  _ He  _ had chosen this path;  _ he  _ had already agreed to be Dave’s pawn yet again. The first downward swing resulted in a loud crack that Jack didn’t find as pleasing as he would have liked. The second swing resulted in the same sound, and it still brought no joy to his husk of a form. The third blow was the same; a crack, and the overwhelming feeling of  _ nothingness. _ Thomas was barely struggling at that point, but he was still very much alive. 

Jack watched in complete silence as the phone man tried to pull himself away to safety that was nowhere within his grasp. Pointless pleas continued to slip out in the midst of his pained noises. “ _ M….Maya. _ ”

Jack stilled at the utterance of the name. It caught him completely off guard, and the way it was cried out filled him with an odd sense of dread that he couldn’t justify or explain. There was no reason to feel this way; there was no consequence for carrying out further blows, but he still felt fearful of ...something. Jack couldn’t place what was wrong, but there was an overwhelming feeling swelling up inside of his chest as he watched Thomas continue to struggle.

“ _ Maya… _ ” The phone groaned again. Jack had never heard that name before; that name meant nothing to him, but it clearly meant something to the man at his feet. 

The sound of Dave laughing behind him startled Jack, and he winced after realizing that Dave had definitely seen him jump at the abrupt noise. 

“Looks like ya knocked a few screws loose in his head, Sportsy,” Dave beamed playfully, despite nothing about the situation seeming playful or even fun anymore. Jack agreed to this knowing full well that the phone had no elaborate plan set up like Dave had tried to claim. This was an excuse to trash the phone, and Jack knew that from the beginning. Whether Dave actually thought that Thomas was a threat or not was irrelevant; Jack knew that he was defenseless and naive. There was no good reason to be bashing his head in, and yet there Jack stood; bat in hand and splattered in blood that wasn’t his own. Granted, this time it wasn’t the blood of children that coated his hands, but it was innocent blood, and yet again Jack had been the one to shed it. 

“Sportsy?” 

Jack distantly realized that it was Dave calling his name, and by the other man’s tone, that probably wasn’t the first time he had said it. “ _ Sport _ ?”

Jack continued to stare down blankly at Thomas without uttering a single response to Dave. The purple man was eyeing him with worry, but Jack didn’t register that look of concern he was given. It felt as if his head was pounding; his body felt numb and cold, and he felt that overwhelming sense of emptiness crush him. Lashing out hadn’t helped him feel any better, but it was  _ his choice _ to follow through. Jack only came back to reality when the bat was being taken from his hands gingerly, and he took a few steps away from the scene before him. He’d dealt his damage, and now it was time for him to take his leave. Dave would finish here even if Jack tried to stop it. That phone was dead even if the bat wasn’t what ultimately put him down.

Whether Jack let Dave put him out of his misery or left him to bleed out on the floor didn’t matter. The phone was as good as dead, and Jack didn’t care to watch until he stopped moving.

  
  


Dave was saying something to him, he realized through the fog that was drowning out his thoughts. He couldn’t understand what was being said, but he recognized the sound of cracking plastic and the dinging from that phone. Dave was laughing and saying something to Jack, but Jack couldn’t process any of it. The only thing he registered was Dave’s voice, and the final following blows. Thomas eventually stilled on the floor, but Dave continued swinging that bat long after he stopped struggling. Jack stood by and watched, feeling completely and utterly empty.


	15. Chapter 15

The pizzeria still held that unwelcoming feel to it as Vanny stepped through those front doors. It was a heavy and almost empty feeling, despite there being very few seats left unfilled around the restaurant. It was a noticeable drop in foot traffic, but it wasn’t an unwelcome one for that day. Fewer people seeing her slip out with the phone-head the better, even though they had hoped to slip out through the window where nobody would be around to see and attempt to stop them. Thomas was nearly home free, it was just a matter of how smoothly his escape would go that worried Vanny. Nobody would come shoving their nose where it didn’t belong, she hoped, and if they did, she had gotten rather good at lying over the years. However, it was lying for a good reason this time around. There were few times when Vanny had lied for the better of anyone other than Dave, Jack, and herself. This time around, she was lying in an attempt to fix something rather than getting away with breaking it, but it wasn’t as if lying for a bad cause affected her to begin with. She was a child serial killer, after all. There were very few things that could compare to stealing away the life of an innocent child, but Vanny wasn’t worried over her morals at that moment. The familiar feeling of eyes on her felt just a tad bit unsettling, but she knew that if she just kept a smile on her pretty pink face and kept walking, then everyone would lose interest in her and go back to their own mediocre lives. Her appearance was the only thing that captivated people, she quietly reminded herself for the umpteenth time. Nobody knew the blood on her hands and the trail of bodies that lay scattered behind her, wherever she had the misfortune of ending up.

She wouldn’t ever have to set foot in this location after today, and leaving so soon felt wrong.

There was nothing special about this location; it was the company she clung to that made Freddy’s interesting. Vanny’s eyes scanned across the restaurant as far as she could see, yet there was no sign of either Jack or Dave. It seemed a bit early for them to both already be in the safe room, but she would worry about them later. It would have probably been better if they weren’t around to see her smuggle Thomas out. She would let them chew her ear off about it later when the threat of that damn factory was nothing more than an unpleasant memory. 

Her footsteps were careful as she stepped across those dirty tile floors towards the office. Once she was down the hall and out of the view of judging eyes, Vanny dropped her shoulders a little, despite the fact that it still felt as if she were being stared at. She hadn’t even realized that she had been tense until she reached the office. The door was closed, just like it always was, but Vanny felt no need to knock. She didn’t need to announce her arrival,  _ he  _ knew that she was coming. Still, Vanny used the back of her knuckles and left three quick knocks on that metal door. She didn’t call out a single word before opening the door to push her way inside. The door slowly came open, and Vanny froze. 

The room was practically painted in it- and it reeked of it as well. Vanny was met with blood; blood so bright that it practically burned her eyes to look at. Her eyes were locked onto the wall straight ahead of her, and she stood unmoving. It felt like she was frozen, despite the way she trembled in place. She didn’t want to look down- she really didn’t, and yet, she did.

Vanny stared at the crumpled form on the floor. His jacket was torn and soaked in blood that had yet to dry. The blood on and around him was still fresh…  _ She had missed this unfold by mere moments.  _ The sight before her was horrific in every sense of the word, but she couldn’t look away. Her vision blurred slightly, almost as if her subconscious was trying to shield her from seeing the truth that lay dead on the floor. 

Thomas was dead.

Vanny had felt nothing seeing children at her feet, yet seeing Thomas so limp and broken made her head spin. Countless emotions surged through her, and even though she couldn’t grasp onto them long enough to identify them, none of them were pleasant. Vanny barely registered the taste of vomit in her mouth as she lurched over and puked into the hallway, and she didn’t care enough to try and make it to a garbage can or toilet. Vanny clutched onto that doorway  _ tight. _ It did little to help her accept that this wasn’t some new nightmare she’d be faced with for the rest of her days. This didn’t feel like a dream, but it sure as hell should have been one.

Vanny knew that this was real; that Thomas was really laying dead in his office, bloody and with his head bashed in. This was real, and there was nothing she could do to undo this damage. 

Nobody could come back from that, even if they weren’t considered a human anymore. Thomas was gone, and soon, Freddy’s would be too.

Her legs felt as if they were going to give out under her at any second, and yet Vanny still stood, even though she was shaking. Her mouth tasted like vomit and the tips of her fingers tingled as if they’d fallen asleep. The world around her was a blur; it seemed to be frozen, yet going a hundred miles an hour at the same time. Vanny knew nothing that she was feeling was logical, but she couldn’t just swallow it all down. For once, she couldn’t hide away from feeling this; it was there, and she was going to have to hang on tight until it passed. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, and the woman sucked in shaky breaths as it began to  _ hurt.  _ Her chest hurt and her head throbbed as a headache approached, and eventually, she had to focus on continuing to suck air into her lungs. Her nostrils burned, and her mouth watered in an unpleasant manner. She was breaking, and she couldn’t get anywhere to hide it. Vanny barely registered what was going on around her. She couldn’t focus on more than one thing, and despite the repeated clenching and unclenching of her fists, she couldn’t ground herself in reality. Vanny barely realized that she was trudging down the hall, and she wasn’t aware of the tears streaming down her face. The feeling of eyes on her made her tense, but Vanny continued to walk throughout the restaurant. The lights above her grew dimmer as she approached the safe room, and the darkness enveloped her as she entered that blood-stained back room. Her eyes scanned across the dirty floor until she saw it. There, next to one of the horrid suits, sat her red prize. The gas container was tucked behind a box, but she could still see it peeking out at her. 

It was waiting for her. It was waiting for her.  _ It was waiting for her. _

Vanny took a few slow steps towards the can, and the tips of her fingers twitched in anticipation of grabbing ahold of that pretty red handle. Her steps were slow and shaky now, but she didn’t stop for even a moment. Vanny slowly bent down to reach her prize. Her fingers wrapped around the handle, and as she lifted it, she felt just a little more aware of what she was doing. There was a voice behind her; it was a voice she couldn’t bring herself to care about at the moment. The only thing she was focused on at that moment was the gas can in her hand, and the way the cold air in the room made her wet cheeks feel cold. She heard a noise, and she knew it was her name, but she didn’t care to muster up a response as she turned to face the doorway once again. Jack and Dave stood in the doorway of the safe room, peeking in with curious yet slightly concerned expressions. Jack looked much more concerned than Dave, but Vanny didn’t register that. They were simply in her way. Her name was called again, this time with a little more urgency, but Vanny simply pushed her way out of the safe room, using her shoulder to force Dave out of her way. She heard the call of her name yet again as she continued down the hall, yet nothing inside of her compelled her to form an answer or even turn back and acknowledge the two.

Her grip on the handle began to hurt, and Vanny distantly realized that she was gripping it just a little too tightly. They weren’t taking this from here.  _ They weren’t going to take anything from her. _

No sooner had she stepped out of that hallway did she feel those eyes staring her down. They were all looking at her, but now she had a reason to be stared at. There was noise all around her; horrible noise that swirled and blended through the air before reaching her ears, and yet none of those noises concerned her. The noise she savored above the rest was the splattering of liquid; the distribution of the gasoline onto the disgusting checkered floors.

She felt it splattering onto her pants ever so slightly as she continued to walk through the building, but she didn’t care. The smell of it made her heart race, and another familiar noise grabbed her attention more so than the splattering of the gas. A child was crying nearby, and it only took her a quick scan of the area to find the source of the sobs. A toddler was sitting at the bottom of the plastic slide, screaming out in terror amongst the chaos around him. Vanny blinked slowly and glanced around the restaurant. Parents were grabbing their children up in their arms and fleeing the premises while others searched through the crowd for their own.

The boy on the slide continued to scream out, and it only attracted danger instead of the rescue he had hoped for. Vanny stopped pouring the gas as she approached the boy. She still had plenty left inside of the canister,  _ plenty left to pour all over the play area. _

Red eyes stared that child down, yet the jagged grin that usually accompanied them was nowhere to be found. With a pathetic sob, the child looked up at Vanny. Big brown eyes stared her down, and she swore she could see a flicker of hope in them. The child opened his mouth to let out another pathetic noise, and a horrid taste filled his mouth as he did.

Vanny stared down at the child with a blank expression as she held that can above his head, completely drenching him in gasoline. His screams intensified as he was doused, yet Vanny still felt nothing. She felt nothing as she heard the loud roar of a man charging her, and she barely looked up in time to see the parent rushing her. The act of bravery was short-lived as a blur of purple sent the man to the ground. Vanny didn’t so much as flinch as she watched Dave pin that man and drive his knife directly into their neck. It was quick yet messy, and Vanny stared blankly down at the man as he attempted to kick Dave off.   
  
“Vanny! What the fuck are you doing?!” Dave screamed at her, barely loud enough for her to hear over all the noise around them. Vanny blinked slowly and watched as the man under Dave continued to squirm and writhe before falling still. Blood pooled out around him, and the sight was familiar to her. She didn’t say a word to the purple man before turning her attention back to the boy drenched in gas. He was clearly having trouble breathing, but whether that was from how hard he was sobbing or the gas she’d soaked him in, she didn’t know or care.

Jack’s voice was the next thing to grab her attention, even though she didn’t really process what he was saying as he stood by Dave, looking petrified and on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He was grabbing at his hair and shaking his head wildly as he rambled something to Dave. Whatever he was saying, it sounded urgent, and yet Vanny still didn’t find herself interested in the situation in front of her. The chaos around her didn’t scare her, and she didn’t feel as if she truly had an impact on it at all. She was simply watching through a screen; it was like she was on autopilot, and her actions weren’t her own.

Vanny turned and continued to leave a trail of gas behind her as she walked through the entirety of the dining area. Several parents ran away as they saw her coming, and a few lost children did their best to dart off and avoid the splatter of gas. She could hear Jack screaming at her, and Dave’s voice was mixed in there amongst the rest of the noise. It didn’t take long until the can was empty, and Vanny cast it aside without hesitation. The sound around her began to clear, and Jack’s hands on her shoulders pulled her out of her fog ever so slightly. Vanny stared into the black of his eyes. Dave was right beside him, looking more frightened than anything. Vanny knew that it was stupid to rush into this without warning them, but part of her simply didn’t care. She wasn’t following anyone this time; Vanny was choosing to do this on her own, and she finally felt her cheeks rise as a grin came back to her, even if it wasn’t a truly happy one.  _ She was merely entertained. _ Dave kept glancing over his shoulder to make sure that no law enforcement had made it there to detain them, and Jack clung to the woman with a pleading expression.  _ They needed to go. _

Vanny knew that time was against them, and Jack’s insistent tugging made her realize just how panicked he truly was. Walking out of the building in handcuffs didn’t sound pleasant, but walking out and leaving the place behind to burn sounded  _ exciting. _ _   
_ Vanny understood Dave’s worry, but there were always risks that they took when they wanted to have fun. Being arrested was no new threat, but it didn’t make the concept sound any more appealing, either. The noise around them was constant, but Vanny no longer felt overwhelmed by it. She felt something rising in her chest, and she shuddered as she swallowed down the urge to slip her knife from where it was holstered on her hip and drive it into the nearest parent or child. They weren’t quite done here, and both Jack and Dave knew that.

Vanny looked between the two as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small yellow lighter. Jack instinctively jumped back upon seeing her wave it about like a trophy, and it was only then that he realized he had been walking through the trail of gas to get to her.   
There was a look of panic on his face, and the man began to scramble away from Vanny. She was always quick to summon that flame, whether it be for a quick smoke or a long, slow burning of a building that was unlucky enough to be just a little too flammable.

“Vanny! Wait-” Jack squeaked out as he continued to clamber backward and distance himself from the danger. He nearly tripped over several tables and chairs in the dining area as he rushed away, but Vanny had no intention of endangering either him or Dave.

The purple man watched Jack go and began to slowly follow, although he looked hesitant. Dave looked conflicted between encouraging this madness or soothing her, but he knew that there was no reasoning with her once she had a lighter in her hands. The gas had already been spilled, and the bridge was already burnt, even if the flame hadn’t been set yet. Vanny looked up just in time to see Jack backing out the door as he pushed his way through the other people still trying to make their way out of the building. Dave continued to back away until he was at a safe distance, and then Vanny followed. Her thumb hovered dangerously close to the top of that lighter, and it made Dave twitch in anticipation. Despite the danger,  _ he wanted to see that flame ignite. _

Vanny stared at the man with a blank expression as she approached him. If he were anyone else, he would have been cowering away from her just by the look she was giving him alone. Dave was unphased by those eyes though, yet the lack of a grin on her face was more than a little off-putting. She practically looked incomplete without it, even if she was about to set an entire building alight.

Vanny gave one glance back at the dining area and the play tubes where a few unlucky bastards were still searching; either for their parents or for their children, and she let out an amused huff. 

The sound of her thumb sliding across the wheel made Dave tense, and the sight of that small flame flickering dangerously close to her skin made his stomach twist in anticipation.

Vanny raised her arm without hesitation and threw that lighter into the middle of the room, and as soon as it hit that floor, the entire dining area was swallowed up by flames. Vanny could feel the heat, even from a distance, and it soothed her. Dave stood next to her, simply watching the tables burn as the plastic of the play tubes began to melt. Dave glanced over at Vanny’s face as he gently took ahold of her wrist and began to drag her towards the front doors.    
She simply stared ahead into that fire with a blank expression. There was no grin, there was no excitement, and there was no satisfaction to be seen.


	16. Chapter 16

“She hasn’t said a goddamn thing.” Jack hissed out under his breath with an urgency in his eyes. He kept his voice low to prevent Vanny and any passersby from hearing. Even though she was sitting in the backseat of her car with all of the doors shut and windows up, caution never hurt. Dave’s eyes drifted over to the parked car, and Jack registered the weary look on his face. Dave was clearly uncomfortable despite the fact he hadn’t voiced it. 

Normally, Vanny would have been a ball of energy on the way to Vegas, but despite Dave’s best efforts to rouse a response out of her, she hadn’t given much other than soft hums of acknowledgment. It was unlike her, and after watching her ignore them in favor of lighting up a Freddy’s, it had Jack on edge. They had killed Thomas in cold blood and there was no way in hell that Vanny didn’t know that. There was nobody else that would have done that to the phone, and both Jack and Dave knew full well that she was aware of this. She knew what they had done- she had to, and yet she hadn’t said anything the entire time they had been on the road.

The gas station parking lot they were lingering in was desolate, and the faint buzzing of the dying neon lights above the storefront was irritating Jack. The cigarette in between his fingers was passed off to Dave who took a nervous drag from it before passing it back.   
“She’s just tired s’all, Sportsy.” Dave tried to assure him through an exhale of smoke.    
“Setting a building on fire takes a lot out of ya-”   
“This is Vanny,” Jack hissed out in protest. “If anything she should be more energetic than before-” Jack finished bitterly with a shake of his head. Dave paused for a moment and glanced back up at the car where Vanny sat, possibly asleep with her head against the window. Her purple hair faintly shone in the pale yellow lights of the gas station, and Dave found himself spacing out and simply staring at her.

“She’s not going to fucking get over this, Dave. She was attached to him.” Jack shook his head miserably and brought his cigarette back to his lips.   
“I think we fucked up.” The orange man muttered the last bit with venom in his voice, but whether it was distaste for Dave, himself, or both were uncertain to even himself.    
Dave eventually pulled his attention away from Vanny long enough to give Jack an unconvincing smile. There was no doubt in Jack’s mind that what they had done was wrong, but he had his doubts that Dave saw it the same way. Dave was afraid of the consequences of his actions; he was seemingly worried about Vanny’s sudden disinterest in basic conversation and how groggy she had apparently become. 

“She just needs time, Old Sport. Sooner or later she’ll realize we were doing her a favor.” 

Jack shot Dave a semi-disgusted glare before snuffing out his cigarette on the brick wall of the gas station. He wanted food, and he was going to get it with or without Dave’s realization that they had likely taken it all too far.

“Help me smuggle something edible out,” Jack muttered before making his way towards the glass doors. Dave followed behind, ready to help Jack shoplift whatever his heart desired. They needed energy for the rest of the ride to Vegas, after all. Dave tensed a little and glanced over his shoulder, back at Vanny’s car. Vanny sat in the back seat, sleepily staring out the window at him without an ounce of emotion on her face. She just looked so damn tired.

Dave knew that she needed time and that Vegas would help her calm down and see his side of things. This was all for the best, even if she didn’t know it yet. Thomas was a danger that needed to be removed, and even though the removal was messy, Dave knew it would be okay.

Vegas always cheered her up. He had no doubt in his broken mind that by the next night, she would be back to her old self as if nothing had ever happened. Vanny always bounced back.

* * *

The entire trip felt incredibly tense, to say the least. Vanny remained in the back seat, silent as death as she drifted in and out of sleep. The radio helped to water down the discomfort, but the small space felt incredibly tense. The random chattering of radio hosts in between songs annoyed Jack as he gripped at the steering wheel, but it was better than drowning in silence. Dave kept trying to strike up conversations with him that quickly went nowhere. Jack didn’t feel like talking, and nothing that Dave tried to talk about was interesting. Vanny’s silence was beginning to wear on Jack, but Dave’s feelings were hard to read with a simple glance.

Jack knew that he was going to continue to act like everything was okay, though. 

That’s just how Dave was. 

The lights of Vegas were something that the trio knew well, and seeing them while entering the city was always an exciting thing. Vanny didn’t make a single sound as those lights came into view, and she said nothing as they entered their city. Jack felt a sickening feeling swirling around inside of him, but he did his best to stay focused on the road ahead of them.

Dave glanced over his shoulder into the back of the car where Vanny lay perfectly still. A grey blanket had been wrapped around her body, and the only movement was the gentle rising and falling of her chest. Her eyes were shut, and her face was expressionless as she slept the rest of the ride away. The light peering in from the windows made her cheeks sparkle, and Dave blinked slowly as he registered the dried tear streaks that trailed down her face. He hadn’t heard her make a noise, but the evidence of her mourning was right there. She had cried right behind him and he didn’t even know it. The way her face sparkled made Dave feel a pang of sympathy. He wanted to reach back there and wipe the glitter from her face, but he remained where he was and turned instead to focus on the glimmering Vegas lights. She would be okay, given time, he knew; she just needed a little alcohol and dancing to realize that. 

He and Jack were the only things she needed. 


	17. Chapter 17

Vanny held the glass cup in her hands tight, clearly determined not to lose it if she were bumped by anyone around her. The liquid inside smelled horrible, but Vanny knew it would get her shitfaced, so it mattered very little to her. The music in the club was blaring, but instead of being energized by the music she normally swayed to, she instead found herself more captivated in downing as much poison as quickly as she could. 

“ _ Van-Van!~ _ ” Dave chirped out beside her with a wide smile. He held his own cup in his hands, and the grin he wore was gentle, yet it still held an undeniable look of mischief in it.   
Vanny looked him over curiously as she took a sip of her drink, and she cocked a brow in question. Dave beamed and leaned forward to pull her close, clearly energetic, and excited to finally be there. Vanny didn’t protest against the hug, and she let him press her against his side excitedly. The club around them was a swirling mess of colors, both from the strobe lights and the colorful dresses that basked under their multicolored glow. In the mess of colors, Vanny and the others should have fit in, and yet, even after all of this time, even after coming here like clockwork, she still didn’t feel like they fit in. They were ignored and blended in, sure, but they didn’t  _ fit _ . When there were so many stray pieces from different puzzles piled up, they often blended together in their useless glory. They weren’t accepted here, they were simply overlooked by partiers who were too drunk, miserable, or distracted to care. 

“It’s your song,” Dave was beaming right beside her with a wide grin. Vanny briefly wondered if he was grinning in that office. Was he smiling as he destroyed Thomas? Did it fill him with the same joy it did when they lured kids into the back?

Vanny put her glass to her lips and took a long drink before replying to Dave with a small smile. It held no true emotion, but whether or not that was obvious to Dave was unclear.   
“So it is.” Vanny hummed in the best cheery tone she could muster. She was thinking too many things; feeling too many unpleasant feelings. Anxiety and sadness were welling up inside of her, and the feeling of it alone made Vanny feel the need to burst out and cry. She needed to stop thinking to feel better, and she needed to stop feeling altogether if she wanted to enjoy tonight. The chances of her actually enjoying herself that night were next to none, but Vanny didn’t want to put any thought into anything. She was going to drink until her head was pounding and her guts had been puked out. Her legs felt odd and tense under her, and even though there was an empty stool right beside her at the bar, Vanny remained standing. The beat of ‘her song’ rang through the club, and any other time she would have already been pulling Jack or Dave out onto the floor to dance until one of them puked on the ground or onto another partygoer. She was a little too sober to be pretending that everything was okay, though. The cup in her hands was quickly emptied, and she set the glass down on the wooden counter in front of her with a small huff. Jack was seated right next to where she stood, clutching onto his own cup with that awkward grin he always wore. He seemed a little more tense and uncomfortable than usual, which was saying something, considering how tipsy he already was. Vanny raised a hand and signaled for another drink, and the bartender quickly came over to give her another glass of regret.

Dave seemed blissfully unaware of the lingering tension, partly in thanks to how much he’d had to drink already, but Jack was  _ far  _ too aware of it. Vanny quickly downed her new glass, letting the final moments of her favorite song play over the speakers without considering moving to the dancefloor even once. Dave seemingly assumed that she just wanted to get a little more booze in her system, so he left well enough alone for the time being as he returned to sipping at his poison as well. Vanny could tell that Jack was uncomfortable, but she made no comment. She wasn’t sure what was making him nervous, but she didn’t care, either. The night was young, and she was going to have  _ fun _ . 

* * *

Warm hands gripped onto her sides tightly as she swallowed down the lingering taste of alcohol in her mouth. Vanny had no idea where they were exactly, but her head was pounding as the colorful lights of the club swirled in her mind. Dave was gripping onto her and muttering something, but she had no idea what he was actually saying. It was a miracle that she was still standing, but her shaky legs threatened to soon change that. She was leaning against Dave’s chest as he rocked her back and forth, enjoying the music while Vanny winced at it. It was far too loud in here, but the deafening silence of the hotel room wouldn’t be much better. She wanted to sway and bask under the glow of the strobe lights; she wanted to melt into the nightlife and act like everything was okay, despite the fact that she knew it wasn’t. The hands on her hips would have usually comforted her, and yet they didn’t. Everything about this felt wrong, and it was taking everything in her to not simply break down and cry right in the middle of the club. The alcohol wasn’t enough, or she simply hadn’t drunk enough yet. Dave grinned down at her, and she could see the look of genuine bliss on his face. Dave was happy; he was happy to be holding her, and he was happy to finally be in Vegas. The beat of the song didn’t compel Vanny to sway as it should have, she was just moving along with Dave; she was following him without any thought. It was an odd sensation as she simply leaned against him, but it was comforting in a way. She didn’t need to think or feel when she could simply follow. There would be no risk of falling if she had someone to hold onto, and there was no feeling broken if there was no time for coherent thought. Vanny gripped onto Dave a little tighter and pressed her cheek into his chest.

They were going to sway and drink their worries away, and if she just kept trying, there was no way that the night wouldn’t be fun. She needed to feel a little less and sway a little more. The hands on her hips continued to rub, but Vanny couldn’t decipher how she felt. 

She needed a lot more than alcohol.


	18. Chapter 18

Vanny gripped onto the toilet bowl firmly as she puked her guts out. The smell was horrendous, but the task of keeping her hair out of it concerned her just a little more than how it smelled.  
“ _Vanny-_ ” Jack sighed from the bathroom doorway as he quickly shuffled inside. He grabbed as much of her purple hair as he could and held it up to prevent it from hanging in her face. The sound of her vomit splattering into the toilet water made Jack want to gag and turn away, but he knew exactly how it felt to be hunched over a toilet bowl as every ounce of what you ate that day came right back out. Vanny had overdone it, just like she did with a lot of things, but Jack could pass no judgment. They both shared a lot of the same mistakes, _the same sins,_ the same regrets. They weren’t too different, at the end of the day. There had been a lot that they’d both been through to get to that hotel room, and there had been a lot of reasons to come back and drink the guilt away. Vanny eventually pulled herself away from what was left of her dinner with a disgusted shudder before reaching up to flush it away. The chunks of once enticing buffet food swirled down the toilet, and Vanny watched them slip away as she tried to steady her breathing. Her head was aching, but that was a symptom of her desperate attempts to lock her feelings in a cage. It had been working, but she was reaching for a temporary painkiller to treat a severe wound. Vanny sat on the bathroom floor in silence, simply trying to will her hangover away.

Jack moved to sit on the edge of the bathtub nearby, seemingly content with sharing the silence with her. The faint humming of the overhead light made Vanny groan, and it was far too bright for such a small space. Vanny sat with her eyes closed, and Jack could tell that she was attempting to avoid flooding her vision with the blinding light. Jack slowly moved to stand and lean forward, outstretching his arms to flip the light off. The only remaining light was shining in from the hallway, but it was tolerable. As soon as that switch was flipped, Vanny wearily opened her eyes and stared at the floor. It was surprisingly clean compared to some of the places they’d stayed at prior, but the cleanliness of the room meant nothing to her at the moment.

The sounds of people walking up and down the hall outside were nothing more than a distant distraction; Vanny only registered their muffled voices and noises as an inconvenience, to which Jack would have agreed. They had been those loud, drunk idiots stumbling down those halls more than once, though. They seemed to have a distaste for people doing the same things that they’d done countless times. 

The bathroom was still, and the only noise inside was the faint clicking of a small clock hanging on the wall. The wallpaper around it was beginning to peel, but it couldn’t be seen in the dark, and neither could the tears gathering in the corners of Vanny’s eyes. She was tired, she was hungry, and she wanted to go home if she were being honest. Nothing about the past three days had been fun, despite Dave’s attempts to make her feel included in their less than moral activities. Cocaine had done nothing to help, and neither had the booze. Being held had done nothing to help, and neither had holding anyone in her arms. Nothing about the past three days had been appealing as it usually would have been. Shoplifting overpriced merchandise from stores gave a brief rush of adrenaline that would quickly fade, but as the days drug on, their petty theft felt like more of a chore than a rush. It wasn’t doing her any favors, and she didn’t need any more keychains or decks of playing cards for the time being. Everything they’d done felt like a blur, and there were pieces Vanny knew that she was definitely missing, but she had very little hope in her mind that they were anything special. Nothing about this trip felt special.

Everything felt off and used; it felt cheap and worn down like a book she’d memorized. Once she knew every crease in that paper, every word, and every twist, it felt like a chore to return to.

This wasn’t helping; the drug’s merciful numbing wasn’t merciful enough, and the alcohol only resulted in hangovers and lost dinner. The ‘ _fun things_ ’ were hurting more than they were helping, and Vanny had never felt so hopelessly lost as she sat on that bathroom floor.   
Jack watched her from the side of the bathtub in absolute silence, clearly unsure of what to do or say. He’d watched as she drank down more alcohol than he’d ever seen her dare to try and snort more cocaine than she could handle. It had been clear that caution, logic, and reason had been thrown out the window. Vanny wanted to get fucked, and she had succeeded, even if it wasn’t in the way she would have liked. Her desperation to detach herself from reality and emotion had only resulted in headaches and regret, but then again, that’s all Vegas was at the end of the day. Vanny slowly moved to wrap her arms around her legs, weakly pulling them against her chest. Jack said nothing as he sat near her, simply listening to the people shuffling outside; the people having far more fun than either of them.

The sound of Dave gently breathing was the only other sound besides Vanny’s occasional sniffles, and Jack glanced out in the general direction of the beds where he knew Dave had fallen over and passed out. Jack wanted to go and attempt to sleep off his hangover, but Vanny’s soft sniffles kept him anchored to that tub. He just sat in silence for a while, and he found himself reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder for comfort. He always stopped himself, though, and that hand was tucked back against himself timidly without Vanny ever knowing it was extending out to her in the first place. There was a lot Vanny didn’t know, and there was a lot she didn’t need to know. Jack sat in the bathroom with her as she tried to gain the motivation to stand and trudge back to bed. She’d elected to sleep alone, and Jack hadn’t been one to challenge her on that. He’d taken enough from her; he could share a bed with Dave.

Jack kept opening his mouth to speak before deciding against it and remaining silent. There was nothing to say; nothing that he could say would soothe her or undo the damage he’d done. Words were useless, so Jack elected to keep his mouth shut. Vanny eventually pulled herself to her feet, albeit shakily, and trudged through the bathroom and out into the small hall that led to their beds. Jack listened as she shuffled into her bed, and he remained sitting in the dark. Anxiety swelled up in his chest, and Jack felt the urge to hunch over that toilet bowl as well.

He settled for leaning forward, however, and with his hands buried in his hands, Jack shook.


	19. Chapter 19

Cigarette smoke drifted through the air all around them, accompanied by the sound of soft laughter.  _ Their dresses sparkled, and their smiles beamed in a welcoming way.  _ Their lips were decorated with pretty red lipstick, and their hands slid across what bits of skin were currently exposed to them. 

Dave seemed blissfully ignorant of Vanny’s obvious discomfort as she held onto her own cigarette, void of a single spec of lipstick, unlike that of the other company he currently held. Smoke rolled out of her mouth as she exhaled, and her eyes remained downcast as she leaned against one of the support beams near the entrance of the hotel. The night air was cold but not completely intolerable. Vanny found herself wishing that she had brought a jacket, but her arms and legs were left exposed to the night air and a few prying eyes that mistook her for just another hooker. Dave was enjoying the company of a brunette woman who was comfortably wrapped in his arms, while a blonde broad found herself attached to Jack. The women were feeding them honied words, and Dave seemed to be eating up every single one he was fed without any question. Jack seemed a little distracted, and his gaze kept finding its way over to Vanny instead of the woman leaning against his chest. 

Vanny looked… miserable if he were being honest. She always stood to the side whenever they decided to  _ ‘socialize’  _ with hookers, but she also never said a word about it. Vanny always let them have their fun, and they always let her slip away to drink or slink into a buffet, only to be chased out a few minutes later when she was caught with a mouth full of shrimp. Vanny had always distanced herself without complaint, but the thought of her going off on her own for a while this time around didn’t sit right with Jack. They should have been trying to stick by her and make sure she was okay, and yet Dave was content with putting his attention elsewhere for a while. Vanny flicked what remained of her cigarette to the ground and huffed out the last inhale of poison she’d managed to get out of it. The wind took it away as soon as it left her mouth, blowing away from all of them down the sidewalk.

Vanny cast them both a sideways glance before looking away again. 

Jack gave the woman in front of him a semi-awkward grin before leaning a little closer to Dave. He kept his voice low, yet loud enough for Dave to still hear.   
“Given the… circumstances... Don’t you think we should pay a little more attention to  _ certain people? _ ” The question bounced around in Dave’s skull for a moment before he replied, most likely due to the fact that he had to take a moment to figure out who _ ‘certain people’  _ were.   
“Van-Van?” Dave questioned, just a bit too loud. Jack winced at his volume, but one quick glance in Vanny’s direction assured him that she either hadn’t heard or chose to ignore it.

“Yes,  _ Van-Van, _ ” Jack hissed back with narrowed eyes. The fact that he even had to clarify annoyed him slightly, but he really wasn’t sure what was in Dave’s system at the moment.

Leaving Vanny to her own devices wasn’t the wisest plan. If she was alone, she was bound to get into trouble, and knowing that she’d  _ just  _ lost something, or rather,  _ someone,  _ made Jack fear precisely what she’d do. If she was alone, she’d have time to think, and if she had time to think, then she’d have time to  _ feel. _ At least with them both around, she would be less likely to have a full-on breakdown. Then again, by hovering over her, Jack knew he was causing her to bottle her emotions up. There was only so much that could be swallowed down before she burst, and Jack feared what Vanny was even capable of if it came down to it. He was more concerned with her safety rather than bystanders, but if she got ahold of a tourist to take her emotions out on in the open, Jack knew that there would be little chance of stopping her from being taken away by law enforcement. Granted, Jack didn’t know whether she would lash out in violence or burst into tears, but at the end of the day, he didn’t really want to know, either. 

Dave’s gaze trailed up to Vanny, and he gave her a soft smile, to which she returned a semi-awkward one in return. It was barely passable as a smile, but Dave took it.   
“She’s fine, Sportsy.” Dave hummed as his fingers slipped down the dress of the woman in front of him. The way the fabric sparkled drew him in, and it felt cool and pleasant under his fingertips. “It would be weird if we changed things up, ya’ know?” Dave’s words seemed to fall upon deaf ears. Jack didn’t look convinced or relieved in the slightest as Dave continued.

“We don’t need her suspecting anything, she doesn’t know it was us-”

Jack’s eyes widened in disbelief, and he took a step closer to Dave, not caring when the hooker that had been leaning against him stumbled away in an attempt to keep from falling.   
“ _ Are you fucking kidding me? _ How dumb do you think she is? She knows it was us- she has to! Nobody else would have-” Jack slowed his speech as he realized what he was saying in front of the women, and he was quick to change his wording from what he had originally intended.   
“-cut the phone line.” he finished, much quieter than his original volume had been. 

Dave blinked slowly, but before he could reply to Jack, he caught sight of Vanny trudging back into the hotel. His smile never faltered, but watching her go made the aubergine man feel just a twinge of concern. He knew that she knew, but telling himself that she was clueless helped ease his broken mind just a little. Vegas wasn’t a place to worry; it was a place to forget about all of the bullshit that faced them outside of that city, and Dave intended to drown in the colorful lights and expensive drinks. Vanny would be fine, and he had his doubts that she would be too hung up about the phone after a week or so. He had been an employer that tried to lure her into a false sense of security and nothing more; He wasn’t even human at the end of the day.

Whether Vanny saw it at the moment or not, they had done her a favor, and she just needed some time to herself to realize it.

Jack watched in silence as Dave pulled one of the hookers closer, and his own attention drifted back to the glass door that Vanny had just slipped into.    
“She’s going to be alright, Sportsy,” Dave reassured him, but even though his voice seemed sure and his smile appeared genuine, Jack had his doubts as arms tangled around him again.   
Despite his best efforts to act interested in the plain-looking woman in front of him, the thought of the hotel catching fire made Jack’s stomach twist with anxiety.    
For one of the few times in a while, he hoped that Dave was right.


	20. Chapter 20

Vanny let out a small giggle at the sight before her. Jack was attempting to untangle himself from the bedsheets that he had  _ somehow  _ managed to get himself trapped in. Dave had a hand in it, but Jack had been asleep when the aubergine man tied those thin sheets together in places, making it impossible for Jack to kick them off without first untying the knots. Jack, who was drunk and half awake, hadn’t yet realized that there was no point in angrily kicking his feet to free himself. He wasn’t nearly as drunk as Dave, and as a result, the knots were subpar and quickly undone by an already-pissy Jack. Dave let out a series of laughs from the bed where he was sitting, and Jack shot him a disapproving glare as he pulled one of his legs free.

Vanny was grinning from where she sat with her back pressed against the tv stand on the floor, and the alcohol in her made her feel pleasantly warm. She wasn’t far behind Dave intoxication wise, but while Dave was loud and booming under the influence, she had mostly been quiet.

The night had been another blur of emotions and lights she couldn’t quite grasp, but they felt overwhelming all the same. Despite the fact that she was smiling, Vanny felt empty and off, and it wasn’t just because she was hungry. 

Dave seemed rather proud of himself, and he gave Vanny a wide smirk to let that fact be known. Jack groggily sat up once he had concluded that going back to sleep would only result in more of Dave’s shenanigans. He wasn’t in the mood to put up with it, and as soon as he completely wiggled his way out of those sheets, he stood to make his way over to the small table where the rest of their stash sat. Most of the snacks were already gone and the crumpled wrappers and bags had been scattered across the floor, but there was plenty of alcohol left to keep them going for a bit longer before they needed to stumble back out of that hotel room for more. Jack grabbed a bottle without hesitation and spun around on his heels to trudge back over to the bed.

Vanny turned her attention to the bottle in her own hands, and even though the liquid inside didn’t have a pleasant taste, she took another swig of it anyway. Another small series of giggles escaped her for seemingly no reason, and she found herself wanting to get up and move around. She wanted to burn off what little energy she had in her system, even if she was feeling sluggish and lazy. The hotel room was warm enough, and it was making her want to crawl up into one of the beds and pull Jack or Dave against her for warmth- for something to cling to. No sooner than she stood, Vanny felt lightheaded. She nearly lost her balance completely and ended up on the floor, but she somehow managed to pull through and stay standing.

Jack cast her a brief curious glance, but he didn’t take interest in her for long.

Dave was far too drunk to even register that she had nearly fallen over, otherwise he would have been laughing until he couldn’t breathe. The entire room smelled like cheap perfume and booze, and neither of those smells made Vanny all that happy. Her thoughts were beginning to blur, and she had to fight the urge to lay down and let sleep overtake her. She wasn’t done yet; there was still so much more to do before she turned in for the night. The hookers had left, and it was just the trio again. There was nobody else in that city that Vanny would have rather been with. There was nobody else in her life that she  _ could  _ be with. The woman’s smile faltered and she looked down to the bottle in her hands. It wasn’t enough. None of this was enough for her. The fog in her mind momentarily lifted, and Vanny looked up at the others where they sat. They seemed happy, so why wasn’t she? 

_ She was just being selfish. _

No matter how many times she had been pulled into a hug that entire trip, she couldn’t shake the feeling of it all. It was the same feeling that she felt at Freddy’s, and it wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. Being embraced by them couldn't shake it, and neither could the alcohol. Drugs were a temporary distraction, but it didn’t help once the high had faded completely. This was a feeling that couldn’t be ignored, and Vanny feared that it was one that would never fully fade. It was oppressive like thunder, and it felt like it was choking her. A weight was on her chest, or that was how it felt, at least. Breathing felt wrong, and so did being held. Nothing about this felt right. Nothing about this was fun. Despite the fact that Dave had been much more affectionate than he had been on previous trips, it wasn’t enough. Jack holding her hair out of the way while she spilled her guts out into the toilet wasn’t enough. None of this was helping, and Vanny realized with an empty smile just how empty her laughter had been since arriving. There was no point in forcing herself to smile, and yet she did… for them. They wouldn’t be able to enjoy themselves if she didn’t keep up the charade that she was having a good time, and spoiling their fun was the last thing that she wanted to do. That grin remained on her face, but the look in her eyes softened. To a room full of intoxicated idiots, it all probably looked the same. 

The sound of laughter echoed off of the hotel walls, and Vanny took a moment to realize that she was the source of the noise. She hadn’t even realized she was laughing until Dave had joined in. There was nothing to be laughing at, really. The moment of Jack trying to free himself had already passed, but the laughter kept spilling out, and Vanny made no attempt to stop it. Jack didn’t seem interested in joining in, but Vanny didn’t notice or care. She took a step towards the bed that Dave was lying on, and the aubergine man moved forward to sit on his knees. She was leaning down for a hug, and his arms were already outstretched to meet her. His long arms coiled around her body and pulled her close, pressing them chest to chest. The overwhelming stench of alcohol helped somewhat mask the other scents that laid underneath, but Vanny could still smell it clinging to him. Dave reeked of perfume that wasn’t hers and smoke from the casinos. Vanny detested both smells, so the hug was short-lived as she untangled herself from him with a new wave of nausea. Maybe it was the alcohol making her more sensitive to the smell, or maybe there was just more perfume smothered on him than usual. Either way, Vanny took a few unsteady steps away with a look of queasiness, and Dave sunk back onto the bed, oblivious to the fact that she felt sick. He was much too drunk to notice the way she nearly gagged as she stumbled towards the balcony. She needed air.

The glass door of the balcony was pulled open without hesitation, and Vanny took a few steps towards the railing before spilling her guts over the side. Now, with her stomach empty, she felt a wave of dizziness briefly wash over her before fading as quickly as it came. The black metal bars of the railing felt pleasant under her hands; it was smooth and cool, unlike the stuffy hotel room. 

Vanny sucked in a deep breath of the night air, and she shuddered as she felt eyes piercing her back.  _ They were looking at her. They were watching her every move. _   
Vanny slowly turned to peer into the hotel room with a blank expression. Dave was lying on his stomach, simply watching her from the bed closest to the balcony, while Jack sat on the opposite bed, staring at her in silence. Jack’s expression was unreadable, but Dave seemed to be in a cheery mood. Vanny couldn’t help but let a smile spread across her face, even if it was void of emotion. The bottle in her hand was still nearly half full, but she no longer wanted to sip at the contents. With a wide smile, Vanny turned and chucked it off the side of the balcony, sending it spinning and plummeting to the ground. She watched its descent with an intent gaze, and she could faintly hear it meet the pavement below. She stared at the faint shimmering of the broken glass below, and she leaned against the railing, just taking in the way it glimmered below her.    
“How far did it go?” Dave questioned from where he was lying on the bed. He sounded genuinely curious, and even with her back turned to him, Vanny knew he was grinning.   
“A little past the sidewalk,” She hummed, just barely loud enough for him to hear. Dave made an amused noise in response, and Vanny pushed herself away from the railing to stand up straight.   
“How far do you think a body would go?” She asked with a sick smile that neither of the men inside could see. There was a pause before Dave replied. “Depends how much meat it has on it.” Came his morbidly amused reply. Jack glanced between Dave and Vanny as he shifted on the bed, scooting to the edge with concern. Vanny lifted a leg up and began to clamber onto the railing with a smile. She slowly stood and wobbled a bit until she steadied herself and looked back into the hotel room. Dave gave her a look of awe as if her balancing act was something to behold as she began to pace back and forth on the rail.   
“How far do you think Freddy would make it?” She asked with a small smirk.   
Dave let out a laugh, barely noticing Jack as he slowly made his way off of his own bed.   
“He’d plummet,” Dave chuckled without a hint of doubt. Jack didn’t find the situation amusing, and he slowly stepped closer to the balcony.   
“Vanny-” He began in a soft voice. The woman shot him a look as she turned to begin pacing in the opposite direction, having already reached the edge of the railing on one side.   
“You could fall-” He continued gently. His legs felt a little shaky, but he stayed standing. How she’d managed to keep her balance with how intoxicated she was baffled Jack, but he was more concerned with getting her down than pondering how she was still staying perfectly balanced. “I could,” Vanny agreed as she took another step along the railing. “How far do you think I’d make it?” Jack opened his mouth to speak, but Dave’s voice drowned him out.   
“You’re light, Van-Van. I bet you could make it past the sidewalk-” Jack shot Dave a mortified look, but Dave seemed too out of it to register the full weight of the situation. 

“You think I could?” Vanny asked as she peered down to the ground with wide eyes. The reality of how high up they really were hit her, and she felt another wave of nausea begin to creep in. 

“Vanny-” Jack tried to call again in a soft voice. Vanny’s gaze was ripped from the shimmering glass below, and she stared at Jack as he slowly made his way to the sliding doors.   
“Get down-” He hissed. It sounded like a plea, and the look on his face confirmed that it was. The realization of the situation she had put herself in washed over Vanny all at once, and she tensed as her gaze drifted back down to the sidewalk below. She wanted down. Vanny slowly moved to lower herself to her knees as her legs began to shake. Jack was saying something in a low voice to her, but she didn’t catch it; she was more focused on trying to  _ get down.  _ The feeling of her boots slipping was the last thing she wanted to feel, but her feet were over the side of that balcony in a heartbeat, and so was she. Vanny reached out for that black railing just a moment too late, and Jack’s panicked scream was the last thing that she registered before plummeting.  
  
  
Jack stumbled forward, arms outstretched as she slipped over the side of the balcony. She was out of sight before he could even reach the railing, and despite knowing there was nothing he could do, Jack gripped at that railing tightly. Dave was by his side in a matter of moments, peering over the balcony in a panic as he rambled off pointless words. It didn’t matter what he was saying. Jack sat on his knees with his head pressed against the railing, feeling a faint breeze brush through his hair. She was gone.   
  


* * *

_ Everything hurt.  _

A horrible pain in her chest made it hard to breathe, but Vanny sucked in labored shaky breaths anyway. The taste of blood in her mouth caused her to her wince, and she spit her bloodied saliva onto the ground below her. She sat on her knees as she shook uncontrollably.  _ Everything  _ hurt, and her broken sobs only made her chest ache more. The balcony she found herself on was dark and lonely, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about being alone at the moment.

She could faintly make out the sounds of Jack and Dave shouting a few floors above, but she didn’t feel the urge to holler at them and inform them of her survival. The idea of speaking at all made her wince, and she had her doubts that she could even call out loud enough for them to hear. Her chest meeting the metal bars of the balcony she was currently huddled on had been anything but pleasant, and it felt like she had broken something. In reality, she probably had, but curling in on herself and weeping took priority over seeking any help. She felt cold and alone, but the sounds of the bustling city around her didn’t help her feel any less isolated. The hotel room ahead of her was barren and dark; it was completely unoccupied. Vanny sniffled and pulled herself closer to the glass doors, moving at a slow pace in hopes of causing as little pain as possible.   
  
A vibration in her pocket made her jolt, and it took her a moment to realize that her phone was ringing. Her head swam as she pulled the door open and crawled into the hotel room, shivering and shaking the entire way. The darkness of the room felt comforting, and now that the sounds of the city were muffled, she felt just a little less overwhelmed. Her entire body still ached, and her arms hurt from having to pull herself onto the balcony and away from certain death. 

The bed looked welcoming, but Vanny only managed to pull herself to it before huffing and leaning against it, drained and miserable.

The vibrations in her pocket persisted and she quickly found that it was somewhat soothing to her. The only sound in that room was her labored breathing and the buzz of her phone against her hip. She knew who was calling her, but she was too tired to pull it out and answer.

She was far too miserable to even humor the idea of forming words, and so she let it ring.

That phone rang, and rang, and rang for what seemed like hours. She would head home tomorrow, she just needed to rest here for the night. Vanny remained with her back against that bedframe, slipping in and out of consciousness as her phone continued to ring.   
Vanny didn’t answer any of the calls, but feeling the buzz against her helped soothe her to a degree.  _ They cared enough to call, even if she missed each and every one of them. _

Vanny sucked in a shaky breath as she began to slip into unconsciousness once more, and her phone began buzzing once more. It didn’t matter. It would be another missed call.


End file.
